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BACKWARD CHILDREN 



THE 
SPECIAL CLASS FOR 
BACKWARD CHILDREN 



An Educational Experiment con- 
ducted for the Instruction of Teachers 
and Other Students of Child Welfare by 
the Psychological Laboratory and Clinic 
of the University of Pennsylvania 



Reported by 

LiGHTNER Wither, Ph. D. 

f 

Professor of Psychology, 

Director of the Psychological Laboratory and Clinic, 

University of Pennsylvania 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC PRESS 
PHILADELPHIA 

1911 



V 



V^V 



Copyright, 1912 

BY LiGHTNER WiTMER 



^CI.A30I)409 



TO MISS ELIZA OTTO 

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF 
THE GENEROUS CO-OPERATION WHICH 
MADE POSSIBLE THE CONDUCT OF 
THIS EXPERIMENT AND THE PUBLI- 
CATION OF THIS VOLUME. 



PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY 
AND CLINIC 



EDGAR F. SMITH, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D.. Provost. 
JOSIAH H. PENNIMAN, Ph.D., LL.D., Vice-Provost. 



LIGHTNER WITHER. Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Direc- 
tor of the Laboratory and Clinic. 

LABORATORY STAFF 

Edwin B. Twitmyer, Pn.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology 

and Assistant Director of the Laboratory. 
Frederick M. Urban, Ph.D., A-isistant Professor of Psychology. 
Samuel Weiller Fernberger, M.A., Instructor in Psychology. 
Retjel Hull Sylvester, A.B., Harrison Fellow. 

CLINIC STAFF 

Arthur Holmes, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology and 

Assistant Director of the Clinic. 
Seymour DeWitt Ludlum, M D., Instructor in Neurology and 

N euro-pathology, and Lecturer on Psychology. 
William F. Craig, M.D. 
Frieda E. Lippert, M.D. 

SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT 

Louise Stevens Bryant, A.B. in charge. 

Annetta Gibson McCall. 

Bertha Anna Alteneder, Recorder. 

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 

(Summer Session 1911) 
Elizabeth E. Farrell, in charge of special class. 

Inspector of Ungraded Classes, New York City. 
Elizabeth A. Walsh, assistant. 
Margaret Pfeiffer, assistant. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER AUTHOR 

I. Motives and Aims Lightner Witmer 

II. The Purpose and Organization of 

THE Specal Class Arthur Holmes 

III. The Children of the Special Class . . Arthur Holmes 

IV. The Educational Organization . . . Elizabeth E. Farrell 

V. The Work of the Special Class . . Elizabeth E. Farrell 

VI. Round Table Discussions with 

Student Observers Elizabeth E. Farrell 

VII. Nutrition and Growth Louise Stevens Bryant 

VIII. Report from the Social Service 

Department Louise Stevens Bryant 

IX. Clinical Psychology and the Pro- 
fessional Training of Teachers 
(and Others interested in Child Wel- 
fare) Lightner Witmer 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

l/ Frontispiece. The Rest Hour. — On the Campus of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania just outside the Psychologi- 
cal Laboratory in College Hall. 
y 

I. Opening School. — Bible Reading followed by Talk 

on Some Topic selected for the Day. 

C 

II. Expressive Work. — Writing at the Blackboard, 

laying Splints, and modelling in Clay. 

III. Expressive Work in Detail. — Giving back the 

Talk at the Opening Exercises. 

IV. Marching Drill. — To line up as shown in the 

Illustration required Four or Five Weeks' Work. 

V. Corrective Gymnastics. — Teaching the Children 
to pick up their Feet in Walking. 

VI. Chinning the Horizontal Bar. — A Satisfactory 
and Inexpensive Gymnasium. 

VII. Attention. — Control of Passive Attention through 
Holding a Position. 

VIII. Grace Before Meat. — The Arrangement of the 
School Room Furniture for the Mid-day Meal. 

IX. The Rest Hour.^Ou Rainy Days the Children 
were required to rest indoors. 

X. In the University Gymnasium. — -Most of the 
Boys were able to take part in the Gymnastic 
Drill. 

XI. The Swimming Pool. — Some of the Boys learned 
to swim and dive. 

XII. Folk Dancing. — Given to the Younger and Less 

Expert Children. 

V 

XIII. The Study Hour. — Reproducing in Sand and 
through Other Hand Work Something connected 
with the Central Thought of the Day's Work. 



J 

XIV. The Home Builders. — Each Child brought a 
Box and out of it constructed a House according 
to the Dictates of his own Fancy. 
w' 

XV. Hand Work. — Nine Different Kinds of Hand Work 
are shown in the Illustration. 

VXVI. A Lesson in Arithmetic. — The Game of Bean- 
Bag is employed to teach Number. 

t'XVII. Another Form of the Number Game. — The 
Child learns also Co-ordination and how to 
play. 

XVIII. Linear Measure. — Number Work with the De6- 
nite Unit. 

XIX. Areas. — Number Work with the Definite Unit 
(continued). 

'' XX. The First Number Lesson. — The Indefinite Unit 
taught through Liquid and Linear Measurement. 

XXI.-XXXII. The Children's Work. 

.- XXXIII. A Simple Device for Testing Intelligence. 

XXXIV. Three Chronoscopes. 

^ XXXV. The Student Perimeter. 

, XXXVI. Quincke Tubes after Twitmter. 

' XXXVII. Muscle and Nerve. 

XXXVIII. Brain Specimens and Models. 

- XXXIX. Spring or Weight Ergograph. 

* XL. The Recording Instrument. 

XLl. The Plethtsmograph. 

XLII. Apparatus for the Study of Visual Percep- 
tion. 



BACKWARD CHILDREN 



CHAPTER I. 

Motives and Aims, 
by lightner witmer. 

This volume may appear to be making a great to-do 
about little or nothing. 

It is all about eighteen backward children who were 
taught in a special class for six weeks during the sum- 
mer of 1911, at the Psychological Laboratory and Clinic 
of the University of Pennsylvania. 

These eighteen children were all of them more or 
less defective mentally and physically. Many of them 
had moral symptoms which aroused grave apprehension 
in the minds of those concerned for their future welfare 
and standing in society. Very few of them inspired 
any confidence in their ability to maintain themselves 
satisfactorily by their own exertions, or to marry and 
rear normal children. 

Why then devote to them so much scientific care and 
training? Why all the exertions of the Psychological 
Clinic to study these children before they entered the 
special class? Why this sending of trained social 
workers into the home to confer with parents? Why 
obtain the opinions and advice of teachers and princi- 
pals in the schools where these children had been drag- 



2 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

ging along in their progress through the grades? Why 
call to our aid physicians, hospitals, medical and dental 
dispensaries, and why in some instances obtain the 
financial support necessary to provide home care, 
discipline, and proper nourishment? 

If we think only of these eighteen children, the expen- 
diture of time and money cannot be justified, unless 
our sympathy for individual cases of misery is so 
intense that every expenditure appears justifiable. 

It is my belief that sympathy may be taken for 
granted as a compelling motive in philanthropic and 
social work. I need not, then, set before you the 
unhappy situation of children, who, through no fault 
of their own, are deprived of every child's right to a 
joyous and orthogenic childhood, — doomed, because of 
inefficiency, to spend their adult life either in dire 
poverty or as dependents upon the consideration and 
bounty of others. 

I do not want you to consider the individual at 
all, and yet, — here is the paradox, — it is only through 
consideration of the individual that we can expect to 
understand the psychological factors which determine 
human progress. I mean that I do not ask your 
sympathy for these children as individuals. I know 
they will receive it without the asking. I do ask that 
in reading this volume you will allow the opinion to 
form in your mind that it is through the direction of 



MOTIVES AND AIMS. 8 

many sciences to the study of the individual that we 
shall finally be able to develop an educational system 
which will actually do what we now in this country only 
pretend we are doing, namely, give an adequate educa- 
tion to every child. The instruction of this special 
class, and this volume, which presents a report of 
many details of the work, deal with these eighteen 
children as specimens of childhood which you will 
find in every large city in this country, and in many 
small towns and villages. 

In the first place these children presented mental 
and physical defects which required scientific in- 
vestigation and scientific instruction to overcome or 
ameliorate. When these defects are excessive, the 
child is at such a disadvantage in comparison with his 
fellows that he may be designated as mentally defective. 
There are 150,000, perhaps 300,000, such children of 
school age in the United States. The same causes 
which may produce mentally defective children, will, 
when operating with less severity, produce children 
who are backward in their progress through the grades. 
There are in the United States 5,000,000 children who 
may properly be designated as backward. Every 
person interested in one or all of these 5,300,000 
children should learn something of profit from the 
perusal of this volume. 

It would seem a reasonable proposition that a cause 



4 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

which in one child may produce or contribute to back- 
wardness, may, in another child, act as a handicap, 
however slight. Children who outstrip most of their 
companions are in turn outstripped by others. Ex- 
amine these entirely normal children with the same 
care with which we examine backward children; take 
the same precaution to remove every obstacle, and the 
children to whom we have devoted this scientific 
forethought will advance with much greater ease and 
rapidity. 

Then there is the child of more than average ability; 
perhaps he may even have the making of a man of 
genius. Every scrap of brain power which the race 
possesses should be conserved. Our schools pay so 
little attention to children of exceptional ability that 
it is unfortunately these gifted children who derive 
the least profit from the public schools. I mean by 
this that their individual needs are less adequately 
met. The child at the head of his class may neverthe- 
less be the most backward or undeveloped child in the 
class, if we consider what might have been done for 
him had psychology and education but devoted them- 
selves to the development of his individual faculties. 

You cannot be interested in any child, mentally 
defective, backward, normal, or a genius, without 
finding in this volume points of view and methods of 
treatment which may be of service. 



MOTIVES AND AIMS. 5 

A special class for backward children is not of greater 
interest to me than a special class for exceptionally 
gifted children. Indeed, I should much prefer to 
assemble a group of gifted children for the purpose of 
demonstrating how much more can be accomplished 
by scientific methods than is being accompUshed in our 
public schools to-day. I will be frank with you and 
say that the only reason I do not do this is because I 
do not know how. I believe nobody knows how to-day. 
[f we are going to learn how, we must make very many 
preliminary experiments, one step at a time, to reach 
our goal. 

The first step toward the understanding and adequate 
training of normal and gifted children in the public 
schools is to understand the problem of individual 
training with backward and mentally defective chil- 
dren. This arises from the fact that the minds of these 
children are less complicated and move more slowly 
than the minds of normal or gifted children. We 
are therefore able to learn more about a defective child 
than about the mind of a normal child, and we shall 
acquire the necessary knowledge concerning normal 
children first through a better understanding of defec- 
tive children. 

This is why I would appeal to your intelligence 
rather than to your sympathy. I want you to see 
that the importance of this work is out of all 



6 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

proportion to the importance of the children with 
whom we deal. 

This volume, then, is a report of the methods and 
results of an educational experiment, general in its 
ultimate aim though specifically directed to backward 
children. Its greatest value will arise from the fact 
that it is a contribution to the body of psychological 
knowledge which should be possessed by every teacher, 
by every parent, and (when we consider that education 
is after all one of the greatest factors in social progress) 
by every social enthusiast, every clergyman, some 
lawyers and many physicians. 

Every piece of work derives value from its setting. 
The publication of this volume fifty years ago would 
have been meaningless. To-day we hope that it will 
play a part in helping on a growing movement. The 
labors of many others in this and related fields will 
assist in making this work of ours available to society. 
This we may call the external relationship of our work. 

There is also a group of internal relations, in effect 
an internal organization. If we had done nothing 
more than conduct a special class for backward chil- 
dren, we should have accomplished much less than I 
believe we have done. The actual teaching of the 
special class was an educational experiment, a sample 
of what special instruction should be, in a sense a 
model, which we hope may be of service to American 



MOTIVES AND AIMS. 7 

teachers; but this educational experiment was only 
a small part of a much larger experiment. The Psy- 
chological Clinic is investigating the mental, physical, 
and environmental causes of backwardness and defect. 
We conducted this class for the purpose of assisting 
us in this investigation. The problem primarily deals 
with the development of the human mind, and there- 
fore falls within the province of psychology. I believe 
that the development of investigation in this direction 
can best be done, or at least part of it can best be done, 
by trained psychologists in connection with the labo- 
ratory resources which only our greater universities can 
afford. Special education, therefore, which implies 
an understanding of the individual, can best be fostered 
by a university department of psychology. 

Many sciences to-day are taking on a social aspect, — 
are manifesting a social direction. Medicine has 
outstripped psychology in making the results of its 
research directly available to society. It is only the 
youth of the science which makes the social contribu- 
tions of psychology less significant than those of medi- 
cine. The Psychological Clinic sends its social workers 
into the home, not only to discover what may assist us in 
our interpretation of the mental condition of the child, 
but also to educate the home, to make parents under- 
stand better the problems presented to them in their 
children. An experiment of this kind will be a halting 



8 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

one unless the proper measures are taken to articulate 
the work directly with the social forces in the com- 
munity, under which I include the homes and the 
schools, as well as with the many special agencies for 
the care of children and other classes in the community. 
In the conduct of our special class the Social Service 
Department maintained a contact with the home and 
the school, not only during the six weeks of the experi- 
ment, but for months before and after. 

Another important feature of this internal organiza- 
tion is the relation of the special class to university 
instruction in psychology. Modern psychology is 
taught by the laboratory method. A special class is 
a kind of laboratory. If I had the means, I would 
have a special class of children in continuous opera- 
tion as one of the most necessary bits of laboratory 
work, for the instruction of my students as well as for 
investigation. Modern psychology is a genetic science. 
We must therefore be prepared to study the mind in 
process of growth. We can best impress upon our 
students the truths of modern psychology if we our- 
selves are absorbed in working out problems of mental 
development. 

But most important of all is the organization of this 
work for the teaching of psychology in the broad 
sense. In the last analysis one can have no interest 
in teaching psychology to students who are not intend- 



MOTIVES AND AIMS. 9 

ing to use it. The number who can become teachers 
of psychology in our universities, colleges and normal 
schools, is limited, but the number who can use psy- 
chology in the public schools, in social work and in the 
home is unlimited. We have therefore set ourselves 
the task of teaching a modern and useful psychology 
in a thoroughgoing way, through systematic courses, 
but nevertheless in a way which will reach the intelli- 
gence and the interests of those who must find the 
science directly serviceable in their life work. Of all 
classes in the community whom we desire to reach the 
teachers are the most important. It is probably fair to 
say that as a learned profession, education is now on a 
level with the other learned professions. It is none the 
less fair to say that in the coming years the relative 
importance of the profession of education will increase. 
This volume, like the work which it reports, is the 
work of many hands. The general responsibility for 
the conduct of the experiment and for the collection 
of the data rested upon Dr. Holmes. Dr. Twitmyer 
gave valuable assistance in preparing the laboratory for 
the special class, in the purchase of material and in the 
taking of many photographs, from which those to appear 
in this volume have been selected. The special 
class was directly in charge of Miss Farrell, and to 
her we are indebted also for the report on the edu- 
cational organization and the conduct of the class 



10 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

contained in this volume, as well as for the very impor- 
tant chapter on the discussions with students in the 
observation class. Miss Farrell was ably assisted in 
her work by Miss Walsh and Mrs. Pfeiffer. Mr. Oscar 
E. Gerney, instructor in the University Gymnasium, 
taught the boys gymnastics and contributed a brief 
but illuminating report of their progress under his in- 
struction. 

The social service reports were prepared by Mrs. 
Bryant with the assistance of Miss McCall. We are 
also indebted to Dr. Lippert for some of the physical 
tests and for acting as medical inspector for the 
children in this class. To Dr. Ludlum and Dr. 
Corson-White we are indebted for serum and other 
tests. To the many physicians connected with dis- 
pensaries and hospitals in this city who have given 
generous assistance, we are under a heavy debt of 
gratitude. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Purpose and Organization of the 
Special Class. 

by arthur holmes. 

Since the general awakening of interest in the mod- 
ern science of psychology, the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, like most of the larger institutions of learning 
in this country, has taken part in developing a new 
type of psychology with new content, new methods 
and new purposes. Under the direction of Dr. Lightner 
Witmer the Psychological Laboratory here has also 
given a great deal of attention to the preparation of 
the teacher for more efficient professional work. As 
early as December, 1896, he outlined, in an address de- 
livered before the American Psychological Association, 
a scheme of practical work in "clinical psychology" 
which included the investigation of the mental develop- 
ment of school children and the organization of a 
Psychological Clinic, offering an opportunity for ob- 
servation and also giving practical training in a new 
profession, that of the psychological expert. In 1897, 
during the four weeks' course of the Summer School, 
Dr. Witmer was able to put the larger part of this plan 
into operation. The Psychological Clinic was organ- 

(II) 



12 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

ized and conducted daily and with it the first day 
class for backward children in Philadelphia under the 
instruction of a specially trained teacher. At the Clinic, 
children were presented suffering from defects of 
the sense organs, of memory, of attention and motor 
expression, and in the training school the children were 
taught throughout the session of the Summer School and 
received pedagogical treatment for the cure of defects 
of speech, of written language and motor expression.* 
The educational experiment was entirely successful 
both in the effect upon the children treated and in the 
value of the results to those interested professionally 
in the work. 

On account of lack of funds, the special class was not 
again organized until 1907, when a group of back- 
ward and mentally defective children were gathered 
together during the Summer School period of that 
year and given special instruction in the rudiments 
of intellectual work and in manual training. In general 
the same methods were pursued as in 1897. The good 
results accomplished by this experiment led Dr. Wit- 
mer to repeat the class in the summer term of 1908. 
In 1909, no special educational work was attempted, 
but in 1910 a class with distinctively new features was 
organized and conducted. In order to reach a wider 
group of workers than the observers present at the 



*See The Psychological Clinic, Vol. I, No. 1, Mar. 16, 1907, p. 5. 



ORGANIZATION. 13 

Summer School, a report of the work with this class 
was published in The Psychological Clinic, Vol. IV, 
No. 6, November 15, 1910, under the caption, "An 
Educational Experiment with Troublesome Adoles- 
cent Boys." 

For the session of 1911 Dr. Witmer proposed the most 
highly organized special class yet attempted. Not 
only did he propose the organization, but worked out 
the general plan, anticipated many of the details, 
and secured the necessary financial support. In deter- 
mining the kind of class that should be organized 
several objects were kept in mind which might be 
classified as philanthropic, social, and pedagogical. 

Here, as in all the previous special classes, the good 
of the children was the first and chief, consideration. 
To this end each child selected for the class was to 
be put into the very best physical condition posssible 
before entrance into the class, so that he could profit 
fully by his experience. During the six weeks, he was 
to be under the most intelligent training and in the 
most appropriate environment that could be secured. 
His daily regimen was to be regulated both in the home 
and in the class. From nine in the morning until four 
in the afternoon he was to be placed under the direc- 
tion of teachers specially fitted for their work and with 
appliances at hand sufficient for all his needs; and the 
rest of the day he was to be carefully watched at home. 



14 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

If his home was not the best, arrangements were made 
to place him in a boarding house where his diet and bod- 
ily care could be supervised. As in former seasons the 
class was to be made up of exceptional children, but 
admission to it was not restricted to any one tjrpe. The 
mentally retarded and the precocious, the well-behaved 
and the morally delinquent were all represented, and as 
much improvement wrought in them as their natural en- 
dowments permitted. The project was philanthropic 
in that it considered the welfare of the individual. 

The class was so organized as to furnish an oppor- 
tunity for the scientific observation of results during 
six weeks of first-rate care and training. To demon- 
strate just how much could be done for a group of back- 
ward children would be valuable not only to those 
directly interested in clinical psychology, but as an 
object lesson it would interest also the child-welfare 
workers of the country. It was expected to draw 
attention to the necessity for systematic, all-round care 
for every child. To obtain results within so short a 
time as six weeks, not only must the daily environ- 
ment of the children be made as nearly ideal as possible, 
but the children themselves must be made as physi- 
cally and mentally fit as possible. In respect, therefore, 
to both results and methods, the work proposed was 
to be not only individually philanthropic, but scientific- 
ally and socially profitable. 



ORGANIZATION. 15 

The pedagogical purposes were so many, and so 
mingled with the social aims, that it is hard to separate 
them. The first consideration, of course, was for the 
teachers who gather from all parts of the country at 
the Summer School. To them the experiment would 
furnish a unique opportunity to observe a model class 
of exceptional children, belonging to all types, being 
trained according to the most advanced principles and 
methods, under special teachers chosen from the pub- 
lic school system and with the co-operation of several 
child-helping agencies of which the Psychological Clinic 
was the center. Great as would be the profit to the 
teachers, it was believed that the profit to the cause 
of education would be even greater. For, without 
any pretense of having reached perfection, this com- 
prehensive organization could offer itself as a sugges- 
tion of what might well be copied wholly or in part 
in many cities where the exceptional child problem is 
acute. 

Further, the experiment was designed to indicate 
on what financial and pedagogical scale the work in 
the special classes should be conducted in order to 
secure results commensurate with the need. The very 
best teacher who could be secured was to be put in 
charge, with at least two of her own assistants. While 
this force of three expert teachers was not at all neces- 
sary for the conduct of the class as a class, they were 



16 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

needed in order to organize it thoroughly, to secure 
the equipment and to attend to the daily outside 
duties connected with the students of the Summer 
School in the observation class. In addition to these 
duties still others would devolve upon them in the 
hourly care of the children from nine in the morning 
until four in the afternoon, including the rest period 
and the hour of luncheon, which was served in the 
school rooms. The daily program, offering a great 
variety of activities, was sufficient to occupy fully the 
time of the three women in charge, though once such 
a class is in operation in a public school system, certain 
functions would naturally be assumed by the school- 
nurse or some other person, and the teaching staff 
could be reduced. 

To show the justification for spending money on 
this work was a leading purpose of the experiment. 
The cost of conducting such a special class as this 
for so short a time under the conditions existing in 
the Psychological Laboratory is, of course, many times 
what it would be in a regular public school already 
equipped for the work. But the good results gained by 
this comparatively expensive experiment, it was hoped, 
would be so great that they would inspire more liberal 
expenditures in all other special classes. 

Besides the appeal to be made to those particularly 
interested in the conduct of classes, an appeal was 



ORGANIZATION. 17 

also directed to that wider body of people who support 
the schools, — the public who pay the taxes. We still 
hope that the results attained will be of such general 
interest that the publication will reach a larger con- 
tingency than the professional teacher or school 
administrator. It did not appear to us unreasonable 
to suppose that the ordinary man or woman, and 
especially the one who has a backward or mentally 
defective child in the home, — and in America there are 
150,000 to 300,000 of the latter and about 5,000,000 
of the former, — would see the justijfication of making 
far more extensive and intensive preparations for deal- 
ing with the immense problem of the backward child. 
The provision is so inadequate for present needs and so 
far from meeting the rapidly increasing demands, that 
undoubtedly for some years to come a large number of 
high grade mental defectives must be taken care of 
in the public schools. This will necessitate the most 
intensive pedagogical methods and will demand 
teachers specially trained for the work and supported 
with equipment and methods of teaching similar to 
those illustrated during the summer in our special 
class. Therefore, in addition to an educational demon- 
stration, we hope to make a strong philanthropic appeal 
for this particular class of children. 

Finally, another purpose loomed large in the minds 
of the promoters of this special effort. It was an objec- 



18 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

tive, not so concrete as any of the preceding ones 
named, and yet in its future effects probably the most 
far-reaching and important of all. By means of this 
concrete illustration we intended to demonstrate the 
need of a psychological clinic in any urban school 
system where special classes are conducted. To show 
clearly this vital necessity, all the children of the group 
were to be carefully examined at the Psychological Clinic, 
their physical defects as far as possible removed by medi- 
cal and surgical treatment, and the nature of their peda- 
gogical training prescribed by a mental examination and 
classification. Everything possible was to be done in 
in order to present them to the teachers of the special class 
in the very best condition for immediate improvement. 
As a result of this preparation far better results would be 
secured in the six weeks of intensive education than 
could have possibly been obtained had the children 
been placed indiscriminately in the hands of their teach- 
ers. While the experiment, in this one particular, was 
to be performed under extraordinarily favorable con- 
ditions, in that the special class was to be held in the 
same building as the Psychological Clinic, nevertheless, 
it would clearly demonstrate the possibility of such co- 
operation between any psychological clinic and any 
school system in the same city. This accidental 
propinquity ought not to affect general conclusions 
concerning the efficacy of such a federation of activities. 



ORGANIZATION. 19 

As a further demonstration of the value of this same co- 
operation, it might be well to mention that several 
minor experiments have been performed with actual 
special classes in public schools and the results of this 
work will probably appear later in The Psychological 
Clinic. 

To sum up, this class was to be the focal point of 
all experience with special classes from the first in 
1897, joined with the experience gained in the Psycho- 
logical Clinic from 1896, augmented and systematized 
by the courses of instruction and the methods of 
original research worked out in the Psychological 
Laboratory under Dr. Witmer's direction during the 
last two decades. All this experience was utilized for 
the supreme purpose of organizing and conducting a 
model class under ideal conditions for the purpose of 
benefiting first the children themselves, secondly, all 
the welfare workers with children, and thirdly, the 
teachers of the country. 

With such an ideal in mind it was obligatory for us 
to secure a teacher of the necessary ability to put into 
practical operation the underlying principles of the 
experiment. Knowing the importance of the teacher 
above every other factor, Dr. Witmer spent much time 
and consideration before choosing the person to be 
intrusted with this most important piece of demon- 
strative and intensive training. Finally he determined 



20 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

to ask Miss Elizabeth E. Farrell, of New York City, 
with such assistants as she might choose to undertake 
the work. Fortunately she was able to accept the 
invitation and the results abundantly prove that the 
selection made was as nearly ideal as possible. 

Miss Farrell is Supervisor of Ungraded Classes in 
New York City. By preparation and training she has 
been particularly fitted for this work. A graduate of 
New York University in 1905, with postgraduate work 
both here and abroad in psychology and psychiatry, 
she has a knowledge of mental development and mental 
defect and disease which is essential to the intelligent 
supervision of the new type of public school. As the 
representative of the New York City Board of Educa- 
tion she visited special schools in England and France 
in 1903, and again in a similar capacity in 1908 she in- 
vestigated the auxiliary schools of Germany and the 
special schools of Belgium. 

In addition to all her other qualifications of pre- 
paration and personality, Miss Farrell brought to her 
work at the Summer School the most unusual equip- 
ment of splendid executive and administrative ability, 
coupled with the power of addressing an audience 
clearly and forcibly. As a result she not only made a 
most efficient organization of the special class, but she 
was able also by her practical talks to the students in 
the observation class to set forth clearly the underlying 



ORGANIZATION. 2X 

motives of every stage of her work and every activity 
of the children. She dwelt constantly upon the pys- 
chology of the children with such force and vividness, 
that she set the teachers to thinking of their school- 
room problems in a new and stimulating way. Such 
superficialities as material equipment and methods of 
class teaching she passed over as being merely inci- 
dental means to an end, depending upon place and 
circumstances, and made it clear that if any teacher 
of normal ingenuity seized upon the real thing, namely, 
the development of the individual child, such things 
as methods and equipment would right themselves. 

Miss Farrell brought with her two of her assistants, 
Mrs. Margaret Pfeiffer and Miss Elizabeth A. Walsh. 
Mrs. Pfeiffer had special charge of the manual training. 
She is a teacher of an ungraded class in Brooklyn, 
New York. Her academic preparation was received 
chiefly at the University of New York, where she was 
a student in psycho-physiology in 1906 and 1907. 
During the latter year she was a special student of 
articulation under Professor Steigner, of the People's 
Institute of New York City. In 1908-09 she devoted 
a year to specializing in manual work for defective 
children at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science. 

Mrs. Pfeiffer's theory of manual training and its 
place in the education of defective children was quite 
in accord with the general ideas of Miss Farrell. The 



22 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

material product of a child's efforts in no wise measured 
her work with that child. Very little emphasis, in 
fact, was placed upon what is usually considered 
fundamental and essential in manual training. The 
usual methods, of course, were pursued; lines were 
marked out upon the wood, and the child was expected 
to follow them as nearly as possible, but when he had 
done what he was told, the work performed was not 
the straight edge he had made, but his new ability to 
receive a command and carry it out. If in time his 
lines became more nearly straight, his planed surfaces 
more nearly smooth, these improvements were not taken 
as the whole effect of his training, but were considered 
merely as indicative of the fact that the child himself 
was developing. In order, therefore, to secure this 
development, and to gauge it by tangible results, each 
child was permitted to follow some line of work which 
he enjoyed and in which he was interested. His first 
attempt to make some definite thing, no matter how 
crude or clumsy it was, was nailed upon the exhibition 
screen with the work of the rest of the children. He was 
urged to take delight in the fact that he had completed 
something, that he had made progress, that his efforts 
had met with some measure of success. The emphasis, 
therefore, upon results was always brought back to 
terms of the individual development of the child, and 
not to mere material and mechanical products. 



ORGANIZATION. 23 

To Miss Elizabeth Walsh, the other assistant, was 
delegated the conduct of the daily classes in their 
kindergarten work. Miss Walsh, like her co-workers, 
was well fitted for her task by long preparation and 
experience. She began her career as a teacher in the 
House of Refuge in New York City, and from the first 
continued to give her entire attention to special classes 
of children. She has had charge of special classes at 
Binghamton, New York, and at present has charge 
of an ungraded class in New York City. She spent 
one term in the study of handwork for defective chil- 
dren at the Chautauqua Summer School, and in order 
to fit herself more completely for the real problems 
of teaching backward children, she became a student 
in psychology at Columbia University. Later she 
specialized in sloyd work at the College of the City of 
New York, and in articulation at the People's Insti- 
tute, under Professor Steigner. 

Miss Walsh, no less than Miss Farrell and Mrs. 
Pfeiffer, realizes that in order to make a success of the 
teacher's profession she must never cease preparing 
for it. While the facts mentioned above indicate par- 
ticular phases of her experience, her preparation has 
been continuous. During the summer session an impor- 
tant task was to reduce the chaotic and inco-ordinate 
movements of the children to some order and system. 
This she did by appealing to their instinotive love of 



24 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

rhythm, a tendency in human nature which expresses 
itself in the wave-like changes of attention, in the beat 
of the heart, in the drum-paced march of the soldier, 
or the songs of group laborers. To supply rhjrthm of 
effort and attention where it was congenitally lacking 
was the task of Miss Walsh, and for this purpose she 
used the piano, songs illustrated by gestures, folk- 
dancing, and similar devices, until the pleasure of 
keeping time brought about the desired co-ordination. 
Necessary as all these items of equipment are, never- 
theless, it remains true that the success of Miss Farrell 
and her assistants depended ultimately upon their 
fundamental psychological viewpoint. They looked 
upon their work as a part of a consistent whole; they 
recognized clearly that to deal intelligently with the 
children in their hands it was necessary to make a 
psychological study of each individual child, and they 
were quite ready to receive the diagnosis of each child's 
mentality already made by the Psychological Clinic. 
Their teaching, therefore, was not teaching in the 
ordinary accepted sense of the term, but it was in reality 
and essentially an individual treatment of a patho- 
logical case, and their genius showed itself in their 
ability to apply psychological principles in the ordinary 
class room. 

From this last remark it will be seen how closely the 
Psychological Clinic was joined to this whole enter- 



ORGANIZATION. 25 

prise. In the first place the selection of the children 
depended upon the past work of the Clinic, for all of 
them had passed through the regular channels of the 
Clinic during recent years. Consequently, when the 
class was to be organized, it was a comparatively simple 
and easy matter to go to the records and select types 
of children who would best illustrate the kind of work 
needed in a special class. At the same time these records 
furnished a complete history of the child's condition, 
at least four reports being on file in each instance. 
When first received at the Psychological Clinic each 
child with its parents or guardians underwent an oral 
examination concerning his own personal life history 
and his family history back to his grandparents on 
both sides. After it was completed a preliminary but 
comprehensive physical examination followed which 
included, first, careful anthropometric measurements; 
and secondly, a medical examination by a regular 
practitioner, in order to discover the two classes of 
physical defects bearing upon his mentality, namely, 
removable physical defects and congenital defects or 
stigmata. If the former were present, the Social Service 
Department immediately took the child in hand and saw 
to it that he visited specialists who made a thorough 
diagnosis of his condition and gave the necessary 
surgical or medical relief. Nor did the social service 
work stop there. Visits were made to the home of 



26 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

the child and a full report rendered concerning his 
environment, the social status of his family, the obvious 
training and treatment which he received from his 
parents, the kind of food he ate, the ventilation of 
the house, his opportunity for play, the probable 
income of the family, and any other items that might 
bear upon his condition. 

Undoubtedly the ideal special class teacher could 
produce wonderful results with her pupils if given 
nothing but an empty room, and the mechanical 
teacher would fail miserably of real results in an 
ideally equipped school room, furnished with all the 
paraphernalia that mind could conceive or fancy 
desire. This fact will be noted in studying the methods 
of our summer class described further on and illustrated 
in the photographs of manual work done; for the chief 
piece of carpentry done by the pupils consisted of 
building a house out of an ordinary packing box. 
Nevertheless adequate rooms and their equipment are 
of no mean importance. 

The first requisite for conducting a special class is 
a location. In the modern public school building this 
presents no difficulty. Large, airy, well-lighted and 
well-ventilated rooms are to be had, furnished with all 
the usual equipment of the school room. With us this 
matter was one of some difficulty and demanded some 
preparation. Three rooms in the west wing of College 



ORGANIZATION. 27 

Hall, directly above and communicating with the 
Psychological Laboratory, were secured and prepared 
for the reception of the class. While these rooms were 
not ideal they were not unsuited for our purpose. 
Being well above ground, they were airy, and having 
many large, high windows they were well-lighted and 
well ventilated for summer work. The windows were 
not located so as to give the best illumination, but this 
defect was largely overcome by the manner of seating 
the children. The location of the rooms above and below 
the class rooms, whose ceilings and floors were not dead- 
ened, rendered them somewhat inconvenient for any 
vigorous exercise, marching or dancing, and this same 
objection applied to the daily use of the piano. 

Another inconvenience worth noting was the ab- 
sence of lavatories and toilet rooms easily accessible 
from the class rooms. For washing before meals, clean- 
ing their teeth and such other necessary requirements, 
the boys were compelled to go down stairs to a floor 
below. Neither were any closets handy for putting 
away hats, umbrellas, or other articles of dress, or for 
storing kindergarten tools, utensils, dishes, material 
for working, and the inevitable odds and ends that 
accumulate about a school room of this kind. It was 
necessary to bring in some book cases and china 
closets, and to store the other things wherever they 
were least in the road. 



28 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

After the rooms had been selected they were pre- 
pared for the reception of the scholars by a thorough 
scrubbing. Floors, windows, walls and all wood work 
were cleaned and several coats of varnish spread upon 
the floors. This made it possible to mop up the floors 
every evening after the day's session. Then the 
furnishings and equipment were brought in. First, 
platforms of the right height were constructed of 
ordinary pine planks and placed in position under 
each black-board so that the children could write on 
the board without inconvenience. The large items of 
equipment were the player-piano, the sand board, the 
work benches, tools, lumber, raflEla, basketry materials, 
clay, dishes for giving the children their lunches, 
and then all the smaller articles of kindergarten equip- 
ment like paper, pencils, rulers, books, crayons, etc. 
The number and kinds of these articles can be seen 
from the attached itemized list. 

Supplies and Materials for the Special Class. 

Summer Session, 1911. 
Equipment. 

10 ordinary pine-top kitchen tables with drawers, 

36" X 23". $1.95 each. 
20 children's chairs, 12" and 14" leg. 80 cts; $8.50 

per doz. 



ORGANIZATION. 29 

3 double work benches, 51"x22". $22.00 (5 

drawers). 
1 sand tray. 

1 couch or cot. $1.50 up. 

2 teacher's desks. No. 26,875, 42" x 30". $11.50 

each with back panel and tall top. No. 26,801, 
42"x30". $8.00 each, no back panel and 
tall top. 
Plants for room decoration. 
20 steamer chairs. $1.50 and $2.25 with rest for feet; 

$1.25 and $2.00 without foot rest. 
20 3| ft. wands. 10 cts. each. 
15 pairs of 1 lb. dumb-bells, 45 cts, per pair. 
15 pairs of f lb. Indian clubs. 35 cts. pair. 
1 Pianola piano. 
I doz. bean-bags. 
I ream oaktag paper, 9 X 14. 
1 large jar library paste. 
1 medium bottle glue. 

1 doz. lead pencils, medium. 

2 doz. lead pencils, hard. 

Supplies. 

Tools. 

1 brace. $1.25 to $2.50. 

I doz. bits. ^ (30 cts.), | (30 cts.), f (35 cts.), 
I (35 cts.), f (45 cts.). 



30 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

2 fret saws. 25 cts. 

6 doz. blades. 15 cts. a doz. 

2 varnish brushes (small). 

3 chisels. J in. 45 cts.; | in. 45 cts.; 1 in. 75 cts. 
Brads, f No. 18, 12 cts. a lb. ; 1 No. 16, 12 cts. a lb. 
Nails, If No. 12, 8 cts. a lb. 

Sandpaper, No. 1. 1 ct. a sheet. 

4 planes, smoothing. $1.35. 

1 pliers, square nose. 45 cts. 

2 steel rulers. About 75 cts. 
4 10-in. back saws. $1.35. 

1 cross-cut. $1.50 to $2.00. 

1 rip-saw. $2.25. 

1 screw drivel, medium. 30 cts. 

Screws. Flat, 1 in. No. 6, 30 cts. gross; 1^ in. 

No. 10, 35 cts. gross. 
4 flies, flat, 10 in. 25 cts. each. 
1 mallet, round. 
1 hammer, claw. 60 cts. 
6 hammers, tack. 45 cts. 
4 try squares, 6 in. 30 cts. 
1 oil stone. 25 cts. 
I gal. turpentine. 

1 can stain, oil walnut. 90 cts. a qt. 
25 dowels. 
Cane for chairs. 

1 lb. fine-fine. 75 cts. bundle. 



ORGANIZATION. 31 

1 lb. fine. 75 cts. bundle. 

1 lb. medium. 75 cts. bundle. 

4 lbs. raffia. Light brown, green. 55 cts. lb.; old 

blue, natural 25 cts. 
1 lb. reed 1. $1.25 lb. 
1 lb. reed 2. 95 cts. lb. 
1 lb. reed 3. 75 cts. lb. 
1 lb. reed 5. 55 cts. lb. 

1| doz. scissors, sharp pointed, 5 in. $2.25 doz. 
Paper: 

12 pkgs. Prang's colored paper, 4x4; 20x25. 
5 cts. sheet, 50 cts. a doz. 
Clay: 
50 lbs. clay. 25 cts. a brick (5 lbs.). 
1 jar for clay. 
Chalk: 

1 box white chalk. 35 cts. a gross. 

1 box colored chalk. 10 cts. 
Paints : 

18 boxes of water colors. 25 cts. small; 65 cts. 
large. 

2 doz. water color brushes. 10 cts. each; $1.00 

doz.; No. 3 brush, medium. 
2 doz. box grease crayons. 50 cts. doz. 
Wood: 

50 bass wood blanks, | in. 
25 ft. joists, white pine, If in. 



82 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

2 boards, | white pine, clear, dressed. 

2 boards, f white wood, clear, dressed. 

2 boards, I white wood, clear, dressed. 
15 ft. I joists, white pine. 

10 ft. pine strips, white, | in. square, dressed four 
sides. 




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CHAPTER III. 

The Children of the Special Class. 

by arthur holmes. 

The Special Class of 1911 was composed of eighteen 
children. A normal boy, the brother of a mental 
defective, attended the class regularly, but was not 
regarded as belonging to it. The table on the next 
following pages briefly summarizes the physical and 
mental status of the eighteen children composing 
the class. There were twelve boys and six girls, rang- 
ing in age from eight to thirteen years. The grading 
of the children as reported from the public schools 
was as follows: two were in the kindergarten, four 
were first grade pupils, three second grade, and six 
third grade; while three were ungraded because of 
mental incapacity. The two youngest were in the 
kindergarten, the oldest was not graded because she 
was of a mental capacity too low to reach even the 
first grade. The class, in brief, was not peculiar in 
its make-up, but possessed the usual idiosyncrasies of 
the special classes met with in the public schools. 

The weight of the children ranged from 42.7 kg. 
(93.9 lbs.) to 21 kg. (46.2 lbs.) with an average of 27.6 
kg. (60.7 lbs.). The heaviest was the tallest girl in 

(33) 



34 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Table I. — Physio-Psychological Status of 



No. 



Name. 



Age at last 
birthday. 



Height 



1. A., Giovanni*. 



2. B., Wilbur. 



3. B., Henry . . . 

4. B., Gertrude. 



5. B., Richmond. 



6. C, Susan. 

7. C, JuUa. . 



8. C, Morgan. 

9. C., Flora... 
10. D., Agnes. . 



11. F., Russell... 

12. H., Ernest... 

13. H., Samuel. . 

14. L., Abraham. 



15. S., Clara. . 

16. S., Robert. 



17. S., George. 

18. Z., Oswald. 



10 

10 
13 

10 

9 
11 

11 



125.7 

128.8 

129.2 
139.1 

135.5 

124 
135 

137 



13 


156.7 


10 


127.7 


9 


123.8 


9 


135 


9 


125.7 


8 


115 


8 


120.5 


11 


139.7 


8 


132.2 


11 


118.4 



* Fictitious names. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS 35 

Each Child in Special Class, July 5, 1911. 



Weight 
in kg. 

25.9 



26 

25.4 
36.7 

30 

21.3 
30.8 

29.3 

42.7 
30.8 

22 

29.4 
27.3 
21 

23.7 

31.8 

21 
23 



Public School 
Grade Reported. 



First 

Second 

First 
Third 

First 

Second 
Third 

Second 

No grade 
First 

No grade 

Third 

Third 

Kindergarten 

Kindergarten 

Third 

Third 
No grade 



Mental Diagnosis. 



Mentally normal. Pedagogically 
retarded on account of neglect 
Morally delinquent. 

Mentally retarded; morally delin^ 
quent. Speech defect. EdU' 
cable. 

Mental defective. 

Normal mentality, pedagogically 
retarded. 

Mental defective. Educable. 
Speech defect. 

Normal, backward through neglect. 

Mental defective, high grade, 
educable. 

Mental defective, with epileptic 
fits. 

Mental defective, trainable. 

Mental defective, educable to 
§_ome degree. 

Mental defective; trainable. 

Normal mentality. 

Mental defective, educable. 

Mental defective, educable to a 
small degree. 

Normal mental capacity but re- 
tarded by partial deafness. 

Normal mentally, speech defect, 
Stammerer. 

Moral delinquent. 

Normal mentality, a hearing mute. 



36 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

the class and one of the oldest. In general, the chrono- 
logical ages were fairly well correlated with the height 
and weight of the pupils, except in the case of two 
boys, M. C, eleven years old, measuring 137 cm. and 
weighing only 29.3 kg., and G. S., a boy nine years 
old, the lightest in the class, showing most alarming 
signs of malnutrition, measuring 132.2 cm. and weigh- 
ing only 21 kg. 

The psycho-clinical diagnoses placed the general 
average of mental capacities fairly high. This quality, 
it must be remembered, must be sharply distinguished 
from the intellectual attainments indicated by school 
gradings. The former is a fixed quality determined 
from present mental potentialities and, if the diagnosis 
were correct, would not change in the six weeks, or in 
a lifetime. The intellectual attainments, on the other 
hand, were variable, and were expected to be changed 
by the class instruction. Gauged by mental capacities, 
nine were normal, but retarded in intellectual acquire- 
ments and mental development by physical defects; 
six were mental defectives of varying grade, but all 
educable to some degree in the rudiments of reading, 
writing and arithmetic, and highly trainable; two were 
not educable, though trainable in manual arts; one 
was afflicted with epileptic fits, and two added moral 
delinquency of varying degrees to their mental aber- 
rations. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 37 

Still one more factor of great importance in the care 
of these children remains to be considered. That was 
the home conditions under which they lived, — com- 
prising their food, drink, sleeping accommodations, 
bathing facilities, and last, but by no means least, 
the amount of intelligent supervision and co-operation 
to be obtained from their parents or caretakers. The 
children are divided into two groups : those who lived 
in their own homes and those who lived in the homes 
of caretakers. The children's own homes, from which 
they came daily in the morning and returned at night, 
represent different degrees of poverty or comfort as 
follows. 

In the first class were the good homes, that is, those 
governed by intelligent parents, who maintained a 
fair oversight over their children, furnished them with 
enough to eat and drink and a quiet place to sleep. 
In such homes co-operation with all our efforts was 
heartily given and, as a rule, we had simply to make 
suggestions about the children's treatment and they 
were carried out. To such homes belong eight of the 
children in the class: W. B., H. B., R. B., J. C, 
M. C, F. C, E. H. and R. S. 

In the second class were the homes not so comfortable 
yet not abjectly poor or destitute. Here the parents 
were neglectful and conditions of ignorance prevailed 
which militated against the best results of the class 



88 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

training. However, witli siKH'ial attention and con- 
stant supervision we obtained sonu^ eo-opcration from 
even these places of abode for such of the children as 
R. F. and A. I.. 

The third grade, or V(>ry poor homes, were those 
usually found in the foreign quarters of (he city where 
the parents are densely ignorant and incapable of giving 
adequate oversight to the children. They may be 
well-meaning people just capable of coping with their 
normal, easily managed children, but utterly at a loss 
to deal with the umisual situation presented by a 
child needing si)ecial attention. To such homes belong 
S. H. and d. A. In the case of S. H. much of the bad 
influence of his own home was counteracted by the fact 
that he sjicnt a great deal of liis time at a local settle- 
ment called the Young Women's Union. There he 
was in t he habit of going daily for a bath in the sununer, 
and in winter practically all of his waking hours excerpt 
the time spent in school were passed under its good 
influences. 

The secon(i grouji of children in the (^lass were those 
who were removinl from their homes because they 
could not be trained while living there, either owing 
to the ex(remt> poviMty of the parents or to other dis- 
ability in providing for their children. In these cases 
the cliildren were placed with special (iaretakers, who 
furnished them with well-cooked, nourishing food, 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 39 

ample bathing and recreation facilities and constant 
supervision by a responsible grown person. Here 
the care and training, though not the most expert, was 
far better than that found in the average home. Dur- 
ing the summer six children lived with caretakers, — 
G. B., A. D., C. S., M. C, G. S. and O. Z. 

So important was the part played in the experi- 
ment by these caretaking homes that it is of interest 
to describe a typical one in which the four last named 
children lived. This particular household was pre- 
sided over by a middle aged woman who has had a great 
deal of practical experience in the care of children. She 
took immediate charge of the children, prepared their 
breakfast and supper daily, brought them to school and 
took them home and gave them all other necessary 
physical care. The household management, the kind 
of food the children ate, their bathing and sleeping 
accommodations, general habits and medical care 
were under the direct supervision of the social service 
department of the Clinic. 

The house was a two-story, nine-roomed dwelling 
in a quiet block of residences, open on three sides, 
with a clear sweep of air day and night, summer and 
winter. On the floors were no carpets or rugs and all 
dust-catching draperies and ornaments were eliminated. 
Running water and a well-equipped bath room, where 
the children were bathed at least every other night 



40 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

and sometimes oftener, added to their cleanliness and 
comfort during the hot weather. 

On the first floor there was a square hall with a stair- 
case, front room and dining room leading out of it. 
The kitchen opened from the dining room and into the 
pantry by door and window, and the pantry opened 
into the back yard. The yard, though small, had grass 
and bushes of its own and gave a good outlook over 
grassy spots in the rear of the house. Here the children 
spent most of their time when they were at home and 
not employed in the house. Upstairs were four bedrooms 
and a bath room. Two of the bedrooms had three win- 
dows, one two, and the fourth one window. All had 
two doors always left open, to give a constant current 
of air throughout the house. 

The routine of the children's lives was regulated as 
carefully as possible. At six o'clock they rose, made 
their beds, set their rooms in order and dressed them- 
selves under the direction of the matron. At seven 
they had breakfast, consisting of bread and milk and 
some cereal. Then they set out for the special class, 
arriving there at a quarter before nine. After seven 
hours of instruction, lunch and recreation, they were 
taken home again. 

After school they had various household duties to 
perform. The girls were taught housework of some sort 
like sweeping, dusting, scrubbing, setting the table 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 41 

and washing dishes, and cooking whenever their age 
would permit. When unoccupied they played out of 
doors, usually in the back yard, or the older girls were 
sometimes sent on errands. All the children were put 
to bed at eight o'clock. 

A second-grade caretaking home corresponded as 
nearly to the one described as the decreased rate of 
board permitted. The children paid three dollars instead 
of five, which made a very real difference in the kind of 
provision made. Here the children received enough 
to eat, had a quiet place to sleep and were given con- 
stant oversight. The woman in charge was kind and 
patient, and the children never suffered from neglect 
or brutal treatment. Specific directions from the Clinic 
as to their care were carefullj'" carried out, and without 
doubt such a home, though not, of course, ideal, was 
nevertheless the best procurable for the money avail- 
able for some of the children, and infinitely better than 
their own wretched abodes, — to be called "homes" 
only by the barest courtesy. 

Such was the psychological and sociological condition 
of the class as a whole. It was a typical special class, — 
typical in its variety of intellectual, moral and social 
gradations and therefore eminently worthy of the 
closest study by teachers and welfare workers. The 
mental, physical, moral and social status of each child, 
on entering the special class, will appear from an 



42 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

examination of the following ' clinic reports," — pre- 
pared from the clinic records for the information and 
guidance of the teachers of the Special Class. 

The Clinic Reports. 

1. Giovanni Arnetti* a boy nine years old, was first 
brought to the Clinic on March 16, 1911, by a Clinic 
social worker. He was sent together with his two 
brothers by the principal of his school because of 
backwardness and bad conduct. 

The personal history of this boy began well. He 
had never been seriously ill and suffered no falls or 
injuries. He started to school when he was six years 
old and at the time of his visit to the Clinic had been 
placed in a special class for incorrigibles. His teacher 
thought that he was just bright enough to be bad, 
and stated it as her opinion that nothing would do 
him any good. According to her judgment, then, 
he was a moral degenerate, or a case of incurable 
badness. 

In the family history there was nothing to sub- 
stantiate this conjecture. The father is well and works 
daily at stone cutting for his living. He has had one 
slight illness, but nothing serious. According to the 
wife's report he drinks some wine and beer, but not to 



♦The names are fictitious, and a few other changes have been made to 
prevent identification. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 43 

excess. The mother of the boy is not strong. She 
was twenty years of age when this child was born. 

The paternal grandmother is still living and well, 
although she has more than outlived her allotted time 
of three score years and ten. The father's father's 
brother, — the boy's paternal great-uncle, — went insane 
and was placed in a sanitarium, on account of a fright 
from a temporary imprisonment by some men who 
wished to rob him. The mother's father is still living 
and well, and her mother died of tuberculosis at a 
mature age leaving a family of three children. No 
mental abnormalities appear on the mother's side of 
the family. The immediate family of this boy con- 
sists of father and mother and five children out of 
six, the youngest having died when five months old, 
from bronchitis. 

The appearance of this boy is not prepossessing, 
but this first impression is modified after a closer 
acquaintance. He is normal in weight and height 
for his age, though he appears small. His height is 
125.7 centimeters and weight is 25.9 kilograms. A 
marked internal strabismus of the left eye strikes 
one immediately, though he wears glasses. This eye 
defect is congenital, inherited from the mother and 
shared by all the other children. 

His hair though singularly soft to touch stands 
up on end. His posture is fairly good, because his 



44 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

muscles are firm and his movements show good co- 
ordination. His skull is inclined to be narrow in the 
frontal region with prominent bosses on the frontal 
bone. The girth of the head is 20.3 inches ; the biparietal 
length 5.6 inches; occipito-frontal 7.1 inches; occipito- 
mental 8.5 inches. At the time of the examination 
there were dark rings under the boy's eyes and he 
looked tired and worn, as if lacking sufficient sleep. 
His nose was broad at the bridge. This broadening, 
in conjunction with the short upper lip, mouth breath- 
ing, and round shoulders, suggested the presence of 
an adenoid growth. His heart was normal in size 
with a slight accentuation on the second beat which 
was rather marked at the aortic areas. The glands 
in the neck at the angle of each jaw were somewhat 
swollen. The lungs were normal. He was advised 
to go to the nose and throat, eye, ear and dental 
clinics. 

On May 17th he was taken to the Pennsylvania 
Hospital where enlarged tonsils and adenoids were 
diagnosed. On May 25th the growths were removed. 
On June 20th his eyes were examined and refracted 
and a prescription for glasses given. 

It was found by the mental tests given at the Psycho- 
logical Clinic that he could read fairly well in the first 
reader, but could not spell words beyond such mono- 
syllables as "dog," "cat," and "rat". He failed on 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 45 

"horse" and "boat". His arithmetic was equally 
rudimentary. He could add 2 plus 3 equal 5; 3 plus 3 
equal 6, but failed on 20 plus 9; 9 plus 17; 6 times 6; 
7 times 5. Pedagogically he belonged in the first 
grade and was, therefore, retarded about three years. 

On the first trial with the form board he placed the 
blocks correctly in thirty-five seconds, and required 
twenty seconds for the second trial, and twenty seconds 
for the third trial. He knew the names of the colors 
with the exception of blue and purple, which he con- 
fused with each other. His visual memory span was 
good for two, but failed on three. By the Binet tests 
he showed the mental capacity of a child eight years 
old. The pedagogical standing was that of a six-year- 
old as indicated by the pedagogical tests, and the 
Binet tests indicated eight. His teacher's opinion, 
that he was bright and could learn, but was so bad 
that he would not learn, was borne out by the Binet 
test. 

With this record he entered the special class of the 
Summer School July 5th. 

The mother's health and character, and the atmos- 
phere of the home, go farther than the personal or 
family history, to account for Giovanni's back- 
wardness and alleged incorrigibility. The mother, 
worn out with child bearing, is sick a great deal of 
the time, and has lost all spirit. She is peevish and 



46 BACE^'-\RD CHILDREN. 

irritable, the children are afraid of her, especially the 
boys, as she strikes them whenever they come near 
her. The father's mother, a ver>- old woman, is exceed- 
ingly jealous of the mother, scolding her continually. 
The father, seldom at home, exerts his authority over 
all, and is verj' severe with the children. 

The boy's reaction to this is natural enough. He 
plays on the streets and goes into the house as httle 
as possible. At school he was reported as being in 
mischief continually, when he wasn't pla^-ing truant. 
His truancy and his lack of interest in school may 
be accounted for in part by the condition of his eyes. 
He has an internal strabismus, and the oculist who 
examined him reports no binocular co-ordination and 
that he is nearly blind in one eye. Naturally school 
work of a formal kind would have no attraction for 
him. 

The mother's brother was the one good home influ- 
ence the boy had. He was a tailor and lived near by, 
and did as much for the bo}*s as he could in his simple 
way. He beat them occaaonally, but also fed them, 
and was so generally kind that they preferred his 
bouse to their own. Before G. came to the special 
class, his uncle took him to hve with him, and agreed 
to pay his carfare to the summer school. 

2. Wilbur Benson, a boy ten years old, was first 
brought to the Psychological Clinic on account of 



CHILDREX OF THE SPECLVL CLASS. 47 

moral delinquency and speech defect, on April 10, 1911, 
by his stepmother, who had been advised to do so by 
her minister. 

The recent life of this boy had been fairly free 
from any untoward events. His birth was difficult 
and the deHvery made with instruments. It was 
reported that he had a large head at birth and that 
his skull was somewhat deformed from the prolonged 
parturition and the use of forceps. He suffered from 
no particular diseases or falls, though he has always 
been a somewhat restless sleeper. When he was seven 
years of age an adenoid vegetation was removed at 
the Samaritan Hospital. 

No items of any importance were elicited from the 
family history. His father is h%'ing and well. His 
mother died iu child-birth. There were seven children 
bom in the family and he was the sixth child. The 
oldest girl and the third child have speech defects, 
but otherwise there is nothing wrong with the other 
children. The youngest child was still-bom. No 
abnormahties were reported iu the grandparents on 
either side of the house. 

The boy's general appearance is not at all unpre- 
possessing. He is short and stocky and his head 
strikes one as rather large. His height is 128.8 cm. 
and his weight is 26 kilograms. His general nutrition 
seems to be good and he has a steady and erect carriage. 



48 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

His musculature is generally well developed, though 
his chest is flat. His hair is dark brown, normal in 
thickness and texture. His skull, as has already been 
noted, is rather large, having a girth of 21.6 inches, 
the biparietal diameter measuring 6.1 inches, the 
occipito-frontal 7.3 inches, and the occipito-mental 
8.6 inches. His teeth are in good condition. He 
complains somewhat of headaches and that his eyes hurt. 
Examination of the naso-pharynx showed the nose and 
throat to be in good condition. A Wassermann test 
for syphilis was made, with negative results. 

This boy started to school when he was six years 
old, where he has been going for four years without 
succeeding in advancing further than the second grade. 
On the Monday previous to his visit to the Clinic 
he had been suspended for bad conduct. One of the 
causes of his retardation lies in his speech defect. 
He is unable to give the hard sound of "c," or "k," 
or "g," and slurs over the "j" in the word "jump," 
but seems to pronounce it correctly in other words. 
He has difficulty with "r," (says "s,") and with "th" 
in the middle of final sounds. All of his phonetic 
sounds he makes too quickly, though when he is shown 
he is able to pronounce some correctly. 

He has several bad habits. One of them is running 
away. On May 19 his mother reported that he had 
just run away for three days and did not seem to realize 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 49 

the seriousness of his act. In addition he has the habit 
of taking httle things about the house and occasionally 
abstracting money from his mother's pocketbook. 

In the examination for mental capacity, he was able 
to do the arithmetic, spelling, reading and dictation 
of the second grade, but the quality of his work was 
very poor. The Binet tests indicated the mental 
capacity of a boy of eight. In sense acuity tests he 
was able to distinguish and name colors and his memory 
span was good for six colors. He can wash and dress 
himself and make his toilet completely except tying 
his necktie. He runs and plays games with the other 
children, likes to throw a ball, and handles a hammer, 
saw and nails. He learns songs very easily. 

W's family live in a large house, which they occupy 
with the family of Mrs. W's sister. The father is very 
impatient with children, and Mrs B., although only 
their stepmother, is completely responsible for them. 
She is well educated, was a public school teacher, 
and for many years was active in Sunday School work. 

W. has regular duties about the house. He carries 
things up from the cellar, and keeps the yard clean. 
He takes care of his own fox terrier, and often helps 
with the dishes, doing this willingly and as well as he 
can. His wandering habit has not been in evidence 
since May, except one Sunday, when he stayed out until 
six o'clock after being told to come back at three. 



50 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

3. Henry Birch, a boy now ten years old, was 
brought to the Clinic July 20, 1909, by his mother on 
account of a speech defect. This speech difficulty 
dates back to the beginning of his talking at eighteen 
months of age. He is reported to have had a hoarse, 
wheezing voice. His pronunciation has continued 
to be very bad. He says "pidzin" for pigeon, "clee" 
for three, and "wat" for rat. His final "t" is never 
clearly sounded. No speech defect appears amongst 
the other children of the family. 

The cause of this difficulty did not seem to lie in 
any of the boy's life events. When a year old he had 
convulsions, caused, according to the attending physi- 
cian's statement, by eating too much cake with cur- 
rants. The convulsions lasted over Sunday night 
until Monday morning and left the child unconscious 
until Wednesday. As far as the mother knew they 
apparently had no permanent bad effects. The boy 
had had the usual measles, mumps and whooping 
cough, but none of them very bad. 

The birth conditions were hard. The child was 
born at full time, but the labor was difficult and the 
delivery delayed. He did not cry immediately after 
birth and was probably partially asphyxiated. 

There are three other children in the family besides 
H., two older and one younger. All of them are nor- 
mal mentally, though the older sister at one time had 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 51 

St. Vitus' dance. The two older ones succeed very- 
well in their school work and give no trouble in their 
conduct. 

The boy's father and mother are both living, but the 
health of neither is good. The mother suffers from a 
weak heart. No mental abnormality appears in the 
family history on either side and no speech defects 
are known in the boy's parentage. 

In appearance he is a boy of the usual Irish type, 
with light, freckled skin, somewhat coarse, and light 
hair inclined to be sandy. His height is 129.2 centi- 
meters and his weight is 25.4 kilograms. His head 
is rather large with a girth of 20.5 inches; transverse 
diameter, 5.25 inches; occipito-frontal, 7 inches, and 
occipito-mental, 8 inches. His forehead is broad, but 
not very high. His complexion and circulation are 
good. His ears are small, but well developed, and his 
nose is decidedly short and inclined to turn up. At the 
time of the examination he was suffering from a sty 
on the left eye. His tonsils had been removed three 
years before. At that time the operating surgeon said 
that he was tongue-tied and that the surgical relief 
necessary would be attended to while he was under the 
anaesthetic. The mother stated, however, that she 
could see no difference in the boy's speech after the 
operation. He still breathes with his mouth open 
both awake and asleep and snores a little. His teeth 



52 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

were carious and needed dental attention, with some 
irregularity limited chiefly to the left lateral incisor 
on the lower jaw. The cardiac pulsations were forcible, 
but without murmurs. His mother gave a history 
of sick spells or bilious attacks from which he suffered 
when he first attended school. The attending physi- 
cian at that time recommended a lighter diet. At 
intervals also he had such a sore throat that he could 
not talk at all. 

About January 25, 1910, he was circumcised. About 
the same time a nose and throat examination was made 
and it was found that the adenoids and tonsils had 
not grown again, though he was somewhat affected 
with pharyngitis. 

The pedagogical history is a varied one. He began 
his educational career at six years of age in a parochial 
school. He did not make much progress and the teacher 
in charge considered him a "dumb" child. He con- 
tinued in that school with an unvarying record for 
disobedience and inability to learn until he was about 
eight years of age when he was removed to a regular 
public school. Here too there was no improvement 
in his ability to learn nor in his conduct. The principal 
of the school declared that H. was "absolutely impos- 
sible as a pupil; that no one could teach him anything 
and that he was the kind of a scholar who makes the 
teacher particularly discouraged." To aid him as 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 53 

much as possible, the father spent two hours each day 
trying to help him with his lessons. Those who observed 
his work under his father's tuition noted an apparent 
increase in the boy's mental ability. He was able to 
spell and pronounce words for his father which he could 
not spell or pronounce in school. The parents attrib- 
uted the difference to the boy's shyness. On account 
of his school disability, he was finally removed from the 
public school, with the eager consent of the teachers, 
and sent to live with his aunt in another part of the 
city in order that he might attend a special class. 
After about a month's attendance in the special class 
the teacher reported that he was getting along "all 
right," though his aunt noticed that he seemed to be 
suffering from homesickness. 

At the time of his examination at the Clinic he could 
read a little in the first reader, could count to 12, and 
could add such simple sums as 2-f 1=3; but failed on 
3+2, which he said equaled 4, and 2+2 = 3. Hespelled 
"cat," "rat," "mat," and "hat," but could not spell 
"dog". 

His mother reports that at home he is very active, 
always running about, playing and shouting. He 
mixes with children of his own age, but likes to quarrel 
with his sisters more than anything else. He refuses 
to study his lessons at home. He is very fond of 
singing, but does not sing well because of his small, 



54 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

wheezy voice. He is not obedient either at home or in 
school, though his temper is not bad. 

At the second visit to the Clinic, October 25, 1909, 
he was able to count to 17 and later in the afternoon 
to 20. He was tried on the alphabet and got no farther 
than "g," although he had been drilled on this exercise 
by his mother. His spelling showed the same errors 
as the first test. His writing exercises for May, 1911, 
showed fair improvement for a boy of his age and 
backwardness. In multiplication every one of his 
problems with two figures in the multiplier were 
wrong. 

On July 17, 1911, a Clinic social worker called on 
Mrs. B. at her home, which is an attractive little two- 
story house with a good sized front yard and porch 
on a street wide and fairly clean. Mrs. B. appears to 
be in bad health and says her heart is weak, and is 
further exhausted from nursing her husband of fifty, 
only just recovered from an illness. Both are fairly 
educated, able to read and write and intend to keep 
their children in school as long as possible. Mrs. B. 
spoke of having been advised to send H. to the Pa. 
Training School for Feeble Minded Children when she 
was at the Clinic two years ago, but felt they could not 
afford it. She thinks his speech has improved since 
then, but does not think him better mentally. She 
appears to be a good mother and any weakness she 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 55 

shows in the management of her children is due to her 
ill health. 

H. was classified as a mental defective, educable to 
a small degree, but trainable, and entered the special 
class July 10th, after it had been in operation a week. 

4, Gertrude Bortel has appeared before in published 
accounts concerning the work of the Psychological 
Clinic. In The Psychological Clinic, Vol. IV, No. 7, 
December 15, 1910, pages 193 to 210, under the cap- 
tion of "The Irrepressible Ego," Dr. Witmer has given 
a condensed account of the treatment of this case extend- 
ing from October 24, 1908, when she first appeared at 
the Clinic, to October 26, 1910, a period of two years. 

She was first brought to the Clinic about three years 
ago by the social worker of a charitable society. The 
chief difficulty so far experienced with the child had 
been her uncontrollable conduct. At that time very 
little of her family history could be found. It was 
reported that she came from an almshouse in the state : 
had been charged with striking, fighting and biting 
grown people; had received very little schooling; 
was afflicted with a specific disease which rendered 
her eyesight extremely bad; and had finally fallen into 
the hands of the Children's Aid Society of Philadelphia, 
who sent her to the Wills Eye Hospital. Beyond this 
practically nothing was known of her babyhood or 
childhood. Later reports, however, revealed that her 



56 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

mother was feebleminded, a woman who earned her 
living by manual work and spent much of her time in 
the almshouses and like institutions. Nothing is 
known of the mother's history, but, according to report, 
she had a sister who was also feebleminded. The 
father, as far as could be learned, was a man of ordinary 
ability, who deserted the mother or at least has never 
contributed anything toward the support of the mother 
or the child. 

Passing from this rather meager family history over 
the period of training covered by Dr. Witmer's article 
noted above, we come to the general physical appear- 
ance of this girl, with measurements taken on July 5, 
1911, when she entered the special class. She has 
grown to be rather a large-boned, muscular-looking 
girl, 139.1 cm. in height and 36.7 kilograms in weight, 
with an upper chest expansion of 2.75 inches and a 
lower chest expansion of 1.75 inches. Her head has a 
girth of 20.5 inches with a biparietal diameter of 5.5; 
occipito-frontal 7 inches; occipito-mental 7.75 inches. 
Her general nourishment and circulation were good, as 
indicated by the haemoglobin test of 70. 

Her features, rather coarse and suggestive of the 
parentage from which she has sprung, are not unpleas- 
ing. Her forehead is low, her eyes dark brown with 
a decided upward and outward slant. The frontal 
bosses are prominent over the frontal sinuses; her 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 57 

nose is small, broad at the bridge with a slight septal 
deviation to the left. Her upper lip is short, her lips 
full; teeth are good; left ear is a little larger than 
the right, Darwinian tubercle present on both ears. 
The sternum is very short indicating a rachitic history; 
the lungs are sound; her heart beats rapidly and 
without any murmur. On July 28, 1911, she was taken 
to an oculist who had been treating her for some time 
for interstitial keratitis, arising from the specific 
disease for which she has also received a long treatment. 
On August 1st she was also taken to an ear specialist 
for some trouble with her right ear. 

The mentality of this child from a technical point 
of view has never been in doubt. Her conduct and 
her disposition, however, have been variable and she 
has been reported by various teachers as unreliable, 
irritable, irrespressible, without self-control, shy, desir- 
ing to please, longing to look well yet looking untidy, 
fully of energy yet lazy, loving yet unlovely, over-gen- 
erous yet often selfish, desiring to be helpful yet often 
unsuccessful when she tries most, emotional yet having 
no depth of feeling, appealed to best by her love of 
the beautiful. 

As reported by Dr. Witmer she was entered in the 
public school in the second grade A on October 26, 
1910, and last June was promoted to the third grade. 
On July 5th she was admitted to the special class and 



58 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

continued throughout the summer, boarding at the 
private boarding house where she has remained for 
some time. 

5. Richmond Bronson, a ten-year-old boy, first 
brought to the Clinic March 24, 1910, by his mother, 
who had been troubled by the boy's backwardness in 
school and by his speech defect. She came on the 
advice of the principal at the public school where the 
boy attended. 

He had started school when he was six years of age 
and was still in the first grade at the time of his visit. 
The general statement was made that he did not 
seem to be able to learn. The cause for this dis- 
ability does not seem to lie in any of the events of 
his life. 

The birth was instrumental and difficult, the right 
eye being slightly inj ured by the forceps. He was nursed 
by his mother and had no digestive trouble. He was 
slow in walking, which he began at twenty-two months 
of age, and exceedingly retarded in his speech, which 
he did not begin until he was six years of age. He 
was always a healthy baby physically and suffered no 
diseases except whooping cough and a mild attack of 
tonsillitis. He is the youngest of two children, the 
other one being quite normal. 

In the family history there is nothing to account for 
his condition. The mother and father are both healthy 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 59 

and of normal mentality. The grandparents on both 
sides are normal. There is no tuberculosis, epilepsy or 
insanity reported in the family. 

The beholder is struck immediately with the apparent 
heaviness and dulness of R.'s face. His body is really 
not so large or heavy as at first sight appears. His 
height is 135.5 cm. and his weight is 30 kilograms. His 
skull is somewhat smaller than normal, being 20.7 
inches in girth, biparietal diameter 5 inches; occipito- 
frontal 7.5 inches, and occipito-mental 7.75 inches. 
There is a slight internal strabismus and a weakness 
of the external rectus of the right eye. Pupils react 
to light, though rather sluggishly. He has been fitted 
with glasses to correct his vision. His ears are close 
to his head at the lobes and his hearing is diminished 
about one-half. His nose is broad and the nostrils 
thick. His teeth are irregular and decayed, with 
the upper canines missing. The palate is rela- 
tively high and quite wide. The abdomen protrudes 
(infantile), though his general nutrition seems to be 
good. 

He was recommended for an eye examination and on 
March 24, 1910, his eyes were refracted. At the same 
time a throat and nose examination revealed only a 
small adenoid which did not obstruct nasal breathing 
and hence was not considered serious enough for an 
operation. He entered the weekly class for speech 



60 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

training at the Psychological Clinic on October 21, 
1910, and remained until June, 1911. 

At the mental examination on March 24, 1910, he 
was able to do only the simplest intellectual tasks of 
the first school grade. He could read out of the first 
reader, form the letters of ordinary words and spell a 
little. He did not know the names of colors, but could 
distinguish primary colors. At the form board he 
placed the blocks in the proper places, but took one and 
a quarter minutes to do it. In the second trial, how- 
ever, he cut this down to three-quarters of a minute. 
In working the form board he first looked at the block 
and then found the proper place for it. In disposition 
he is said to be very affectionate; runs, jumps and 
plays with the other children and takes part in all kinds 
of games. He is able to dress himself and take care of 
his daily wants, to eat at table with knife and fork, and 
in every way to conduct himself as a quiet normal boy. 
He is slow and sluggish, with the mentality and dis- 
position of a high-grade, educable mental defective of 
the apathetic type. On July 5th he entered the special 
class. 

R. is living at home, and his home belongs distinctly 
to the first class, called ''good". It is near Fairmount 
Park, which furnishes ample playground facilities and 
it is here that R. plays ball. He is also fond of working 
with tools, and constructs wagons, automobiles and 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 61 

other toys. The mother is intelligent and wholesome, 
and is ambitious for R. to become a dentist, but fears 
that he cannot be prepared for this profession. 

6. Susan Catherwood is an example of one type of 
poverty stricken child from the poorer sections of 
Philadelphia. She came to the Clinic first on April 4, 
1911, when nine years of age, brought here by the 
visitor of a charitable organization, on account of 
backwardness in school. Her first school experience 
began at the age of seven in a parochial school, and 
when brought to the Clinic she had just been pro- 
moted to the second grade with a poor record, partly 
due to irregular attendance, but more particularly on 
account of inability to learn. 

Her birth was natural, at full time, but she was a 
small baby weighing only six pounds. She was nursed 
by her mother, and during her infancy lived and grew 
as an ordinary child. At one year, her first steps were 
taken, but she early exhibited a speech defect which 
prevented her talking until she was six years old and 
which remains with her still. Her first tooth appeared 
at six months of age; she sat up at eight months and 
played with toys and behaved like any ordinary child. 
During her second summer, as is not uncommon with 
children of her social type, she had what is reported 
as summer complaint. 

There were three children altogether in the family. 



62 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

but one had died from chicken-pox. S. is the second 
child. Her brother, who is eleven, is so decidedly 
defective mentally that he is to be entered permanently 
in an institution for the feebleminded. This girl looks 
like her mother, who is and has always been in good 
health, employed always in hard work in a textile mill 
which she continued during the first four months of 
pregnancy with this child. The woman drinks a glass 
of beer occasionally, but not to excess, and conducts 
herself in every way as an ordinary, hard working, un- 
educated and uncultured Irish woman whose greatest 
task is to make both ends meet. Her father died of 
old age after living a life of health and hard work as a 
brick-layer. Her mother, who was otherwise normal, 
died of heart trouble, leaving behind ten children, 
all reported normal and healthy. The history of 
the mother's family, therefore, presents no abnor- 
malities. 

The child's father is living and is reported as mentally 
normal and healthy. However, he is addicted to 
alcoholic excesses, does not work steadily and is a 
chronic deserter. He can read and write, but did not 
succeed in completing his public school education. 
His father was killed in a railroad accident and his 
mother died of Bright's disease. His brothers are all 
reported normal. From both sides of the house, there- 
fore, this child has a clear mental record. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 63 

As has been said, this child looks like her mother, 
which means that she conforms to the Irish type, with 
a very florid complexion, freckled face, light, sandy 
hair, and the speech and actions of a street child of a 
large city. She is somewhat round-shouldered with the 
right shoulder lower than the left and a decided spinal 
curvature to the left. She is decidedly underweight 
and stunted, with a pendulous abdomen. Her height 
is 127.0 cm. and weight is 21.3 kilograms, with a girth 
of head 20.4 inches, biparietal diameter 5.7 inches; 
occipito-frontal 7 inches; occipito-mental 8.4 inches, 
and bitemporal 4.5 inches. The grip of her right hand, 
according to the dynamometer, is 10 pounds and the 
left 9 pounds. Her skull is well shaped with some 
marked protuberances in the forehead; her eyes are 
blue with a vision decidedly subnormal; her nose is 
broad at the bridge, and nostrils small with upper lip 
shortened; her teeth much decayed, notched, and 
covered with deposits of tartar, the upper jaw over- 
hanging the lower fully three-eighths of an inch 
with her teeth closed, and as might be expected, her 
palate is very high, narrow and V-shaped. The nose, 
teeth and palate malformations are probably due to 
enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Her ears are normal 
in size, but the lobes and helices are underdeveloped. 
The nutrition and circulation are not very good, giving 
her hands a cold, dry feeling. The upper chest expan- 



64 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

sion is three-fourths of an inch and the lower one- 
half inch. Her speech is marred by a bad infantile 
stammer. 

The mentality of this child is far above what a casual 
observer would expect from her general appearance and 
social station. She reads fairly well in the second 
reader and remembers a fair portion of what she reads, 
and her spelling is confined to words of the same grade. 
She does not know the multiplication tables and her 
arithmetic is equal to that of the first grade. The Binet 
tests indicated a mental capacity belonging to a child 
of about six years of age. A part of this retardation 
is undoubtedly due to the limited opportunity the child 
has had for gaining general information and for securing 
the proper intellectual training. When tested with 
the form board she started with no apparent com- 
prehension of the task, but gradually worked it out. 
On the second trial she placed the blocks correctly in 
about 55 seconds with one mistake, and on the third 
trial she placed them in 45 seconds with no mistakes. 
In disposition she is obedient, good-natured, and affec- 
tionate, without any marked bad habits except a lack 
of politeness due to her neglect. At the end of the 
examination it was recommended that the child be 
sent to the nose and throat and eye clinics, that her 
teeth be cleaned, and the orthodontic work necessary 
for straightening the jaw be performed. After that 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 65 

it was thought advisable for her to spend some time in 
the country. 

On July 6, 1910, through a charitable society, arrange- 
ments were made for the removal of the adenoid vegeta- 
tion, and this was done May 4, 1911. On July 15, 
1911, by special arrangement, she was taken in charge 
by the Psychological Clinic, placed in a boarding house, 
and entered in the special class. 

Susan's home is at the rear of another house in a 
narrow street, fairly well paved and fairly clean. The 
entrance is by way of an alley not more than three 
feet wide. The yard is clean, except for a pile of rub- 
bish, rags and papers (but no refuse) in one corner, 
which is to be removed next ash-day. The house is 
a tj^ical rear dwelling, with three rooms one above 
the other. It is reasonably airy, and possesses that 
one advantage of rear houses, privacy. The lower 
room is clean and neat, but very poor and shabby. 

The household consists of Mrs. C. and her three 
children, D. aged twelve, S. aged ten, and J. aged three, 
and Mrs. F. a sister of Mr. C. Mrs. F. and all the 
children looked bright and clean. J. had a hammer, 
some nails and blocks of wood, and was having a good 
time, which shows that an intelligent effort is being 
made to keep the children busy and happy. They are 
anxiously waiting to have the older boy admitted to 
an institution for feebleminded. There is a play- 



66 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

ground within a block of the house, where he spends the 
greater part of his time and is very much interested 
in some manual work taught there. J., the other boy, 
is an unusually bright, attractive-looking little fellow. 

Mrs. C.'s whole life appears to have been the never- 
ending struggle of a decent and self-respecting woman 
against poverty and the degradation of a life with a 
lazy drunkard for a husband. From the earliest 
childhood, Susan's surroundings have been those of 
poverty, and often of absolute want. Mrs. C. did not 
apply for any charity until January, 1910. Before she 
went to the society the family had lived on bread and 
tea for a week. The constant struggle for food, and 
the moving from place to place, have had a serious effect 
on the children. The only means of support which 
the family possess are Mrs. C.'s wages, the help given 
them by the charitable society, and the decidedly 
fitful payments of Mr. C, who is bound over by the 
court to pay a small sum weekly toward the support 
of his wife and children. 

Susan presents one of those critical cases fraught 
with so many possibilities for good or evil to the com- 
munity which has made her what she is. Through no 
fault of her own she was born near the borderline 
between normality and feeblemindedness, and equally 
through no fault of hers, the inability to procure the 
nursing, good food, shelter, clothing, and education 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 67 

demanded by her congenitally weak constitution, has 
caused her mentahty to waver between advance and 
retrogression, until now the shghtest stimulus or addi- 
tional burden may throw the balance in either direction. 

7. Julia Crampton, a girl of eleven years, was first 
brought to the Clinic April 3, 1911, by her mother on 
account of the child's backwardness in school work. 
She had started school when she was six and a half 
years old and at the time of the examination was in the 
third grade, where she had been for two years. Her 
progress in school had always been slow and she had 
remained almost double the usual time in each grade 
up to the third. As the child had three different 
teachers and had attended the classes in which children 
ordinarily make good progress, the cause of her retarda- 
tion did not seem to lie in school conditions. 

On the other hand, the present history of the child 
revealed some causes of mental retardation. Her birth, 
to begin with, was instrumental and extremely long and 
tedious. She began to walk at two years of age and 
talked at three years, showing a retardation in both 
accomplishments. Her first teeth did not come until 
fourteen months of age, and she did not sit alone until 
ten months. At five years fainting spells began and 
continued regularly until April, 1910. Then there was 
a cessation of the spells until April 1, 1911, when 
the attack appeared more like a convulsion. This, 



68 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

with other symptoms, seemed to indicate that the 
fainting spells had taken on an epileptoid character. 
Three years prevous to her examination the operation 
for adenoids had been performed, although she con- 
tinued to catch cold easily and had several attacks 
of bronchitis. 

There is one other living child in the family, and 
a boy of three years died from whooping cough fol- 
lowed by convulsions. Since the time of his death 
three miscarriages have occurred. The mother's 
health is poor. The father is an engineer and works 
regularly, though he suffers somewhat from kidney 
trouble. The paternal and maternal grandparents 
were all normal, though the father had an uncle who 
was very defective mentally and who died at the age 
of forty years without any improvement in his 
condition. 

In physical appearance the girl is quite pleasing. 
She has the appearance of a little housewife, with a 
certain subdued air of activity about her. Her shoulders 
droop somewhat and the right shoulder is higher than 
the left. Her muscular development is fair, though the 
whole left side of the body appears somewhat smaller 
and lower than the right. Her height is 135 cm. and 
her weight is 30.8 kilograms. 

She is microcephaUc with a head girth of 20.25 
inches; a biparietal dimension of 5.9; occipito- 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 69 

frontal 7.1; and occipito-mental 8.5. Her hair is 
thin, but glossy. Her eyes are apparently set wide apart 
and the pupils react normally to light. The internal 
canthus is adherent and her vision is about one-half 
normal, and the lobes of the ears are undeveloped. 
Hearing is normal. The bridge of the nose is rounded 
and the nose itself is undeveloped. The palate is high. 
The teeth are irregular, but in fairly good condition 
on the whole, though one or two are badly decayed. 
At the time of her examination the hands were cold 
and moist, though the mother reported that they were 
usually hot. Cyanosis was evident in the purple 
hands, and her face and cheeks were flushed. The 
vaso-motor system seems to be unstable and her heart 
rhythm irregular. 

She was recommended for examination at the eye, 
nose and throat and dental clinics, and for the 
Wassermann blood test. The last test showed negative 
results. Her nose and throat were found to be free 
from obstruction, but her eyes were refracted and 
glasses procured. The mental examination indicated 
a mental capacity thoroughly in accord with her 
present retarded school grading. She could read fairly 
well in the fourth reader, but seems to have no idea of 
making up words by composition. She could tell the 
names of colors, could distinguish colors, and had a 
visual memory span for six colors. She answered 



70 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

correctly 2+1 = 3; 4+2 = 6; 7+5 = 12, but failed on 
4+5 and on 10 cents minus 5 cents plus 1 cent. 
The Binet test indicated that she had the mental 
capacity of a child ten years old. 

According to her mother's report, she was disobedient 
and never happy or affectionate, loving housework and 
enjoying scrubbing and cleaning; seized at times with 
extremely violent outbreaks of temper without provo- 
cation; always nervous and quarrelsome with other 
children, taking offense very easily and sensitive 
to any criticism or remarks about herself. She is able 
to take care of herself and her daily wants, to eat at the 
table and to conduct herself in the ordinary things of 
life with propriety. 

The principal of the school where she has been a pupil 
for the last four years reported that she seems to be an 
extremely interesting case. According to him, with the 
exception of her arithmetic, which seems utterly beyond 
her grasp, she is doing fairly well in other studies; her 
conduct is always good, though he repeats the state- 
ment concerning nervousness and sensitiveness. Her 
grade teacher speaks of the peculiar trait that J. had 
of ruining her work papers by putting marks through 
each letter after forming it, a practice that can be 
prevented if the child is watched carefully, but which 
returns the moment the watch is discontinued. This 
action appeared to the teacher to be a form of dis- 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 71 

obedience and misconduct, against which punishment 
proved to be of no avail. 

Her case was diagnosed as mental deficiency, par- 
tially due to hereditary causes and partially to epileptic 
fits. 

Julia is the only child in a good home, particularly 
well furnished, airy and comfortable, although her 
father is a night-watchmen earning only thirteen dol- 
lars a week. The members of this household are the 
father and mother, Mrs. C.'s mother, and the girl. 
Formerly the parents had, in their effort to do the best 
thing by the child, punished her quite severely, but 
after suggestions from the Clinic they substituted the 
punishment of sending her to bed, and they already 
think this has a better effect. She does not get so 
excited or nervous. J. is fond of housework and her 
mother allows her to help her about the house a great 
deal. 

8. Morgan Cross was a boy of nine years when he 
first came to the Clinic, as far back as October 7, 1909. 
He was brought by his mother on account of backward- 
ness in school work. He began his schooling at the 
regulation age of six years, and had spent three years 
in getting into the second grade. His progress was 
distinctly erratic. In spelling he was usually able to 
make 80 or 90 per cent grade. In other studies, 
especially arithmetic, he was exceedingly deficient. 



72 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

He has the general appearance and expression of a 
boy mentally unbalanced. His face constantly wears 
a look of tenseness, sometimes changing to an expres- 
sion of fear as if he were expecting something to happen 
to him. His movements are irregular and jerky; 
sometimes he is seized with such fits of restlessness 
that he cannot sit quiet even for a few minutes. On 
this account his teacher at school said that he needed 
individual attention, and that otherwise he could not 
be interested in his studies, as most of his mistakes 
and failures were due to carelessness. 

According to the report of his mother, Morgan was 
born naturally and at full time, and remained a healthy 
baby, though nursed on a bottle. He was slow in 
walking, but learned to talk at the usual time. At 
seven years of age he had measles and whooping cough. 
A little while previous to his examination at the Clinic 
he was operated upon for adenoids, and following the 
operation his parents noted a general improvement in 
his conduct and mentality. 

Three other children were born in the family besides 
M., who is next to the oldest, and one miscarriage 
occurred just before his birth. The other two children 
are normal and the oldest boy aged ten is reported to 
be exceedingly bright. 

The mother's health has not always been good. 
Some years ago tubercular glands were discovered in 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 73 

her neck and she moved to the country, where, accord- 
ing to a later diagnosis, the fresh air and country life 
have checked the threatened disease, though she still 
remains extremely nervous. The father is a mechanic 
and adds odd jobs to his regular work. Both of the 
boy's grandfathers are dead, but both of his grand- 
mothers are living. 

The only mental abnormality reported in the family 
history is that of excessive nervousness in the mother's 
family. Her mother has had nervous spells which 
were so marked as to warrant the term insane, though 
she has never been placed in a sanitarium. 

At first glance the boy's physical appearance is not 
bad. Though slender in build he has a fair muscular 
development for eleven years and his height is slightly 
above normal. His height is 137 cm. and his weight 
is 29.3 kilograms; girth of his head is 21.5; biparietal 
dimension 5.9; occipito-frontal 7.6; occipito-mental 
9. A closer examination shows marked malnutrition, 
shown by prominent ribs and joints, and marked 
venation, with sluggish, superficial circulation, the 
superficial lymphatics in arms and neck being some- 
what swollen. Adenoid signs appeared in the nose, 
broad and flattened with small nostrils; in the high 
and rather narrow palate, and in his drooping shoulders. 
The ears are well developed with audition of the left 
ear more acute than the right. At the time of the 



74 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

first examination the second teeth were coming through 
somewhat irregularly. His heart and lungs are normal 
in size and sound and his pulse is 88. His pupils react 
to light and accommodation and the eye muscles are 
well co-ordinated. 

He appeared to know the primary colors both by 
name and by sight, though he sometimes confused purple 
with green or blue. He could spell "boat," "mouse," 
but spelled "house" h-o-r-s-e. He could read in the 
second reader, but did not seem to remember what he 
had read and was not able to recall any facts from a 
paragraph. He subtracted 18 from 25 incorrectly 
and could not divide 50 cents by 25, nor subtract 25 
from 50. He was able to work with the form board 
normally. 

After the examination he was recommended for 
further treatment to the nose and throat and eye 
clinics. On October 12, 1909, his eyes were refracted 
and glasses were prescribed. On April 1st of the 
following year his mother reported that the boy was 
doing very well. About two months later his case 
again came up before the school board of the town in 
which he lived, and his parents were advised to send 
him to an institution for mental defectives. This, 
however, was not done. On the following October 
the boy was taken again to the eye specialist and two 
pairs of glasses secured, because the boy constantly 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 75 

lost the ones he had and the intention of his mother 
was to keep one pair at home and one at school. He 
informed the oculist he did not study because he had 
made up his mind to learn carpentry and that there 
was no use in doing anything anyway, for the world 
was coming to an end before he grew up. At this 
time his conduct was very much improved, and in the 
following February the report was received that his 
mental progress was also very good as shown by an 
average of 94 in history and 85 in geography. 

He was entered in the special class of the Summer 
School July 5, 1911. 

9. Flora Cummings, a girl of thirteen years, made 
her first visit to the Clinic, November 5, 1910, under 
the care of her mother and through the advice of a 
school principal. A casual look at her would in no 
wise prepare the observer for a statement of her mental 
condition. She is tall, mature and well formed, quiet 
and mannerly in all of her actions, carries herself as 
well as the average girl of her age, with a face more 
than usually pleasing and pretty, exhibiting that 
alternation of mobility and repose which usually dis- 
tinguishes the normal child from the abnormal. It is 
only when she smiles or begins to talk that her infantil- 
ism appears. 

The life history of this child is a story of backward- 
ness in almost all the usual instinctive acquirements 



76 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

of children, with the exception of first dentition and 
walking. Her birth was normal, at full time, and she 
was nursed by her mother, who did not notice any- 
thing abnormal in her. Her first teeth were cut at 
the age of six months and she began to walk at eleven 
months of age. During her teething she almost died, 
although no spasms or convulsions appeared. From 
three months of age she suffered much with indigestion, 
but gained in weight continually. From six months 
until eighteen months she had fainting spells, which 
occurred when she was disappointed of any desire, 
for example, if her mother refused to pick her up from 
the floor. She did not talk until she was three years 
old and then her voice sounded as if she were hoarse. 
From five years to seven she was scarcely able to make 
herself understood on account of grimaces which seized 
her whenever she attempted to speak. From the 
mother's report, her speech defect seemed to be a kind 
of stuttering. There are no illnesses reported in her 
life. She began her school life at the usual age of six 
and has attended several public schools, in which she 
made no progress whatever. Two months previous 
to her examination she had been entered in a special 
class. 

In the immediate family there are two other children 
both of whom are normal. Previous to this child's 
birth, with the exception of nervousness, the mother 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 77 

was in good health. The mother's mother died at 
seventy-two years of age, having been paralyzed for 
twenty-four years. The mother's father also died at 
seventy-two, but from heart trouble. No other abnor- 
malities were reported in the mother's family. 

A vein of abnormality appears in the father's family. 
He himself, according to an aunt's report, has never 
been able to hold a position except with the help of 
his relatives. An interior decorator by trade, on one 
occasion, it is reported, he painted a room and charged 
$1 for the day's work, supplying the material himself. 
For a time he tried to be a conductor on the street 
cars, but was not able to fill the position. He is extreme- 
ly dull and phlegmatic. His father is living and per- 
fectly normal. His mother died at the age of fifty 
from diabetes. One of his brothers died from tubercu- 
losis. The rest of his brothers and sisters are healthy 
and normal in every way. 

As has already been said. Flora's personal appearance 
is extremely good for a girl of her mentality. Her 
height is 156.7 cm. and her weight is 42.7 kilograms. 
Her skull case appears slightly microcephalic, with a 
girth of 21 inches; biparietal 5.25; occipito-frontal 
7.25, and occipito-mental 8.5. Her hair is thick, brown 
and glossy, and grows well down on her forehead. 
The general contour of her head and face is good. 
All of her features are normal and no special stigmata 



78 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

appear anywhere. Her right shoulder is carried some- 
what lower than the left and an extreme flatness of 
the ribs appears in the lower thorax on both sides. 
The abdomen is very prominent, but no actual lordosis 
is present. The heart sounds are quick, active and 
distinctly heard all over the pre-cordial region. The 
respiratory sounds are normal and her circulation 
appears very good. 

On November 12, 1910, her eyes were examined by 
a specialist, who reported that the eye grounds are 
perfectly normal. A little later the Wassermann blood 
test was negative. 

At the mental examination it developed that she 
could select primary colors very quickly and could 
pick out readily any two from a number placed before 
her. She could read out of the first reader, but was 
not able to get the sound of certain words like "pony" 
by the letters. She called "talk" take and misread 
in for "is". She could work the form board accur- 
ately but slowly. Beyond this her intellectual acquisi- 
tions seemed to be nil. 

In disposition the mother reports that the child is 
kind and good-hearted; that she has no fits of extreme 
temper; that she plays nicely with other children or 
with children of her own age until they become tired 
of her inability to keep up with their games. She is 
so good-natured that she is imposed upon by others. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 79 

Her teacher reports that she is deceitful and appears 
to be particularly interested in the boys, because she 
constantly tells the teacher tales about seeing boys 
and girls of the school kissing each other. She herself 
is partial toward the boys and is popular with all of 
them. About the first of December the same teacher 
reported that the girl was doing much better. She was 
more obedient and did not pay so much attention to 
the opposite sex. A second examination at the Psy- 
chological Clinic on May 19th revealed nothing new 
except a lateral curvature in the upper dorsal region, 
and some weakening of the arch in both feet. 

On July 5th she was entered in the special class of 
the Summer School, classified as a mental defective, 
educable to only a small degree, but easily trainable. 

F. comes from a good home, — good, that is, in some 
ways. A rather high standard of living is kept up 
with a great deal of difiiculty. The mother does all 
she is able to do for the child, which is not much, 
because of Flora's low grade of mentality. The mother 
is not a strong nature, and yields, it is said, to the teas- 
ing of the child. The father is a negative factor in the 
household. 

10. Agnes Doolan is a girl ten years of age, who still 
shows her country rearing in a soimd body and clear 
skin. She was first brought to the Clinic on June 
15, 1910, by a social worker of the Children's Aid 



80 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Society on account of peculiar backwardness and 
nervousness. Her difficulties in life began early, for, 
though her birth was natural, she was extremely small, 
weighing only three pounds, and was nearly asphjrxiated 
by prolonged delivery. For three months she did not 
gain much in weight, but from that time normal physi- 
cal growth began and continued. At eleven months 
of age she took her first step and was saying her first 
words when a year old. She had measles, but no other 
infantile diseases. 

Ten other brothers and sisters were born to her 
parents, one a still-birth, one who died of measles, 
and nine still living. Some of the other children, 
however, are backward, especially one of the two who 
are old enough to go to school. 

Just before the birth of this child the mother, who 
is an American of French descent, was not in good 
health, though she has since recovered and is well and 
strong. Her father is living and in good health, and 
her mother, who had eleven children, is reported 
healthy. Among the eleven children there was one 
sister subject to epileptic seizures. The child's father, 
fifty-three years old, an American of English descent, 
has always been in good health, but works irregularly 
on account of alcoholic intemperance. His father was 
always sickly and died from some liver complaint. 
His mother succumbed to dropsy; otherwise she was 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 81 

always in good health and had eleven children all 
mentally normal. 

Agnes started school when she was eight years old, 
and has attended regularly since that time, five months 
in a country school and two months in the Normal 
Model School, but in neither place did she succeed in 
advancing mentally. Her teacher reports that she 
entirely lacks concentration and that her attention 
can be held only for the shortest time. The child is 
affectionate, sympathetic and obedient. She knew 
the names of colors and could distinguish colors. 
She failed to spell ''doll," "Fred," or "read" but was 
able to spell "can". She read a little in the primer, 
placed the pegs correctly in the peg board, and failed 
to make combinations with colored blocks beyond 5. 
As indicated by stringing beads and by her general 
movements her co-ordination is good. She moves 
with the ordinary actions of a healthy child and seems 
to be full of life and health. 

Physically, her good appearance is marred some- 
what by bad posture due to lateral curvature. Her 
hair is soft and glossy, her cheeks are full and red and 
her eyes bright. A second glance at her head reveals 
that it is somewhat undersized and measurements 
give a girth of only 18.5 inches, biparietal dimension 
of 5.25 inches; occipito-mental 8.25 inches; occipito- 
frontal 7 inches. Her height is 127.7 cm. and her 



82 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

weight is 30.8 kilograms. The grip of her right hand 
is 17 and that of her left is 15. The upper chest 
expansion is 1.5 inches and the lower 2 inches. Her 
eyes are rather small, possibly on account of some 
fcetal arrest, with defective vision in both eyes, pre- 
dominating in the right. There were no abnormali- 
ties of the ears, mouth, teeth, palate, nose, heart or 
lungs. 

By June 20, 1910, five days after her first visit to 
the Clinic, her caretaker reported that the child's 
nervousness had entirely disappeared and that she 
seemed quite intelligent, affectionate and obedient. 
Several months later, October 31, she is reported by 
the same teacher to be rather sulky and to have taken 
bread and buns from the table and pantry. She still 
showed energy in housework and a very clever imita- 
tion, but was unable to remember the stories read to 
her, had no idea of locality, and could never be sent on 
an errand a block from the house. On December 5, 
1910, she was entered in the public school in the first 
grade A, where, on January 4, it was reported by the 
principal that she was a sweet-tempered, lovable and 
obedient child, who gave no trouble in the school 
room and tried desperately hard to do her work. On 
February 2, she was promoted to the first grade B 
and did well. On March 28th her work was reported 
by a Clinic examiner to be about one-third that of 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 83 

the average child. On May 12th she was again 
examined at the CHnic by a medical examiner, and on 
account of a cough pointing to some naso-pharyngeal 
trouble she was sent on May 19th to the nose and throat 
clinic of the University Hospital, where adenoid vegeta- 
tion was diagnosed. She was operated upon June 21st 
and the adenoids removed. On June 22d she was 
sent to the oculist, where her eyes were refracted and 
glasses fitted. 

She entered the special class on July 5th. 

In making this diagnosis due consideration must 
be given to A.'s early home environment, which has 
undoubtedly had much to do with her retardation. The 
family is very low in the social scale. The father, 
by trade a lumberman, has worked in a brick yard, and 
though he is reported to be of over-average intelli- 
gence and well liked by his fellows, is not able to hold 
his job on account of excessive drinking. He has 
deserted his family frequently and at present has been 
away for four years. The mother has worked at a 
variety of things, — ^washing, cleaning and in a restau- 
rant. She is reported as having normal mentality, 
being very loquacious and given to posing. 

With nine children to be supported in this haphazard 
way, it is not surprising that the family failed to 
prosper. Until broken up by the local Children's 
Aid Society, they lived in a field outside the town. 



84 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

like animals in filth and rags, the children learning 
nothing at all and having no intercourse with out- 
siders. When the Children's Aid Society took A. 
away she did not cry, but went gladly. She was 
placed for a year with a farmer, who, according to his 
own statement, treated her badly, beating her, and 
not teaching her anything. Nevertheless, she cried 
at leaving him, an eloquent comment on her former 
home life. 

Two sisters, one seventeen and one six, are in a state 
institution for feebleminded. The older girl is undoubt- 
edly below par mentally, but the superintendent gives 
it as his opinion that the younger is the victim of neglect 
and underfeeding, which have retarded her mentally 
as well as physically. It was in hopes of saving A. from 
the same fate that the Children's Aid Society took 
charge of her and sent her to the Clinic. 

11. Russell French is a little boy nine years of age, 
with ashy complexion and the withered features of a 
person beginning to grow old. He came to the Clinic 
February 13, 1911, brought by his mother at the 
instance of a teacher of a special class of the public 
school. At seven he had begun school in the first 
grade, but remained away seven months during his 
first year because he made no progress. Then he was 
placed in a special class, where he was at the time of 
the examination. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 85 

He was born naturally and at full time, but his 
walking was delayed until the age of two and his 
talking until the age of four. In his infancy he had 
measles twice and chicken-pox once, and at two years, 
though reported to be up to that time a fat, healthy 
baby, he was operated on for appendicitis. Every 
winter he has had bronchitis and for that reason he 
wears a pad of cotton over his lungs throughout the cold 
weather. There were three children originally in the 
family, but the first child died when four months old 
from marasmus, and the third, when two months old, 
from what is reported as summer complaint. 

The mother is a woman of thiity-five yeais of age, 
in good health, and working daily. Hei father and 
mother are both dead. Two and a half years after 
the boy's birth his father died at the age of thirty-two 
from tuberculosis of the lungs. The father's brother 
is at present in a tuberculosis sanitarium, though both 
his father and mother are living and there seems to be 
no hereditary connection with the tubercular dia- 
thesis in their two sons. The boy, Russell, though 
presenting a very marked tendency toward phthisis, 
was pronounced, after a careful examination at the 
Medical Clinic, to have no pharyngeal signs of the 
disease itself. 

In general appearance he is short and small for bis 
age, with a height of 123.8 centimeters and a weight 



86 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

of 22 kilograms; girth of head 19.8 inches, biparietal 
dimension 5.3 inches; occipito-frontal 7 inches, and 
occipito-mental 8.3 inches. The tests for sense acuity 
showed that his hearing and vision are normal. His 
teeth were badly decayed and very irregular with 
Hutchison's grooves present in the upper incisors, 
which led to his being sent to a specialist for the Was- 
sermann test, with a negative result. 

In mentality the child was far below normal. He 
could not name the primary colors, but was able to 
match them. He could not spell, or read, or do 
arithmetic, and in school was occupied with simple 
kindergarten exercises. The Binet tests indicated 
a mental capacity of five and a half years. He 
attempted to work the form board by the method of 
tiial and error and showed no improvement on his 
second and third efforts. His attention was fitful and 
wandering and he seemed unable to concentrate his 
mind upon any task for any length of time. Physical 
weakness and mental fatigue were evident in all he 
tried to do. He was classified as a mental defective 
capable of improvement. 

On March 9, 1911, a nurse of the Tuberculosis 
Society visited the home of the boy and endeavored 
to secure better sanitary and hygienic conditions. 
However, she met with no co-operation on the part of 
the family. The mother was living with the aunt, 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 87 

whom she assisted in a fish market. Mrs. F. refused 
to permit the boy to leave home, to make any change 
in the cotton pad across his lungs until April, or permit 
him to sleep alone until that time. On June 6th 
an adenoid operation was performed, and on July 
5th he entered the special class of the Summer School. 

12. Ernest Haskell, a boy of nine years, was first 
brought to the Clinic on Jan. 24, 1911, by his mother 
on account of backwardness in school. In general 
appearance E. is a meek, quiet-looking boy, with his 
head held slightly on one side, his shoulders drooped, 
and his body drooping like that of an old man. There 
is a general old-fashioned look about him which causes 
one to feel for him a sense of pity in no wise justified 
by his physical, mental or social condition. 

He began school in the country when he was six 
years old, but a few months later when the family 
moved, he was transferred to a city school. He was 
regularly promoted and at the time of his examination 
was in the third year B. Considering the fact that he 
was changed from a country to a city school, the loss 
of one-half year in advancement is not serious. His 
pedagogical retardation therefore may be explained 
by this one fact. 

The personal history of the child bears out this 
supposition. His birth was natural and at full time 
and he was a perfectly healthy and normal baby. 



88 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

He began to walk at one year and to say his first words 
at the same time, though he was very slow in acquir- 
ing a vocabulary. He cut his first tooth at seven 
months. He has never been seriously ill and escaped 
the usual children's diseases except whooping cough 
and measles, the latter appearing only last summer. 

In his immediate family he is the third of six chil- 
dren. All the others are healthy and bright; one boy 
of fifteen graduating from the grammar school this 
year. His mother and father are living and in good 
health. The grandparents on both sides of the house 
were normal and healthy, all of them living to a good 
old age. There were twelve children in the mother's 
family, all of whom are living and healthy. 

The physical examination showed that Ernest is 
135 cm. in height and 29.4 kilograms in weight; that 
the right shoulder is slightly elevated; that there is a 
convex curvature of the spine to the right in the dorsal 
region. His head is rather large for his body with a 
girth of 20.8 inches; biparietal dimension of 5.25 inches; 
occipito-frontal dimension of 7.25 inches, and occipito- 
mental dimension of 7.75 inches. He has been wearing 
glasses for about a year and has recently had his eyes 
re-examined. His hearing is good. The only marked 
physical defects apparent were the broad bridge of his 
nose, his protruding scapulae, his drooping shoulders and 
the spinal curvature noted above. Some of these symp- 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 89 

toms it was thought pointed to a nasal obstruction, due 
possibly either to a deflected septum or to adenoid 
growth, but upon his being sent to a nose and throat 
specialist for examination, the nasal obstruction was 
considered so insignificant that an operation was not 
advised by the physician. On July 3, 1911, he was 
circumcised. Following his examination and opera- 
tion, according to the report of his school principal, 
his progress in school was greatly accelerated and he 
was promoted to the fourth grade B at the end of the 
school year. 

In the examination for mental capacity made upon 
his first visit to the Clinic, it was found that his memory 
span was only fair, being good at first for only three 
colors, though after three trials he succeeded in naming 
four. He spelled correctly such monosyllables as 
"cow," and "dog," but failed on "horse," and spelled 
"goat," g-o-t. He answered correctly such problems 
as 5X5 = 25; 3X3 = 9; 4+3 = 7; 17+8 = 25; 8—5 = 3, 
but failed on 17—4; 8X8; 9X8; 7X6; 4X4; 2X4. 
He worked the form board rapidly, with precision, 
and without mistakes. These facts, taken in con- 
sideration with his clear family history and the absence 
of any causes for permanent mental defect in his own 
life, compelled the diagnosis of his case as simple 
retardation probably due to transference from a country- 
school and to natural slowness aggravated by physical 



90 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

defects. He will probably always remain slow in his 
acquisition of knowledge though he may go on pro- 
gressing indefinitely. 

Ernest belongs in a home that is "good" by defini- 
tion. The surroundings are good, with the exception 
of the near-by car barn. The house is a small, neat, 
two-story dwelling, and is well kept. His mother is a 
woman of rather unusual intelligence, of a pleasant, 
calm temperament. She is interested in her boy's 
development, and is more than willing to co-operate 
in his care in any way possible. She stated it as her 
conviction, without seeing the fatal implication, 
that if his "attention could only be secured he would 
be like other children." Ernest is fond of tools, and at 
home spends much time making wagons and other 
playthings. 

13. Samuel Hartenstein was a bright eyed, dark 
complexioned, Russian Jewish lad, nine years of age, 
when he was first brought to the Clinic Apiil 1, 1911, 
by a social worker of a charitable organization. His 
backwardness and bad conduct were the causes of 
his visit. He had been in the care of this particular 
organization for three years and had received special 
attention in his lessons. He started to school at the 
age of six, spent one year in the first grade A, six months 
in first B, six months in second A, and six months in 
second B. He was put in the third grade A to see if 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 91 

he could get along with another teacher and not 
because his scholarship justified the advance. Later, 
however, because no improvement occurred, he was 
demoted to second grade B, but again placed in third 
A where he remained until June, 1911. 

This boy is the only child in the family. Significant 
circumstances of his birth and babyhood are not 
procurable to any extent on account of the mother's 
inability to speak English. According to her, he was 
born on shipboard. He had measles when three years 
old and at that time was very nervous, and his adenoids 
and tonsils were removed in the fall of 1910. Beyond 
the statement that his father was a Russian from whom 
the mother ran away seven years ago, and that he was 
extremely nervous, no family history was procurable. 

The boy's general appearance is not at all unpleasing, 
though a profile view gives him a decidedly negroid 
aspect. His head appears to be somewhat microcepha- 
lic with a girth of 20 inches, biparietal dimension 
5.25 inches; occipito-frontal 6.75 inches; occipito- 
mental 7 inches. His height is 125.7 cm. and his weight 
is 27.3 kilograms. The vision of his left eye appears 
subnormal with the right slightly better. His soft 
palate appears to have been amputated when the 
adenoids and tonsils were removed in 1910. His 
teeth are fairly regular, white and clean, though the 
upper teeth overhang the lower ones. 



92 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

The examination for mental capacity agreed well 
with the statements made by his teachers. He could 
not spell the third grade work or even the second 
grade, nor could he read in either grade, though in 
the first reader he was able to pronounce words hesitat- 
ingly with several mistakes. In arithmetic his answers 
showed that he was not able to visualize. When 
asked to subtract 25 from 40 he would answer 25. 
When, however, he wrote down the problem, the 
answer was correct. He knew the names of colors 
and could distinguish colors. He placed the blocks 
in the form board correctly in the normal way using 
the left hand. On the second trial, though he is 
left-handed, he used his right hand with the same 
result. He knew the names of common objects 
and their uses. His mentality was called in question 
by a social worker upon the very curious ground 
that he would leave the dinner table and sit on the 
floor. 

Backward as he appears to be mentally, his conduct 
has been giving even more trouble. Like many boys 
of this class, conflicting reports have been current 
concerning his mentality and conduct. The agent 
of the charitable organization reported that he plays 
truant from school, "shoots crap," and has fits of 
extreme temper; and according to another report, 
he throws stones at other children, both boys and 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 93 

girls. He not only appears unable to do his school 
work, although he is helped, but does not seem even 
to wish to make any progress. 

Quite different are the reports of the social workers 
of the Psychological Clinic, gathered from visits to 
his home and conversations with his mother and the 
neighbors. According to his mother his conduct is 
good. In the evening he plays with the older boys 
in the street, plajdng running games, stealing rides on 
wagons, and cutting up the usual pranks of boys. 
Saturdays and Sundays he goes to the playground, 
several of which are located in the neighborhood. 
He spends a great deal of his time at the Young 
Women's Union, where he enjoys a daily shower bath 
in the summer. He sometimes goes to the moving pic- 
ture shows, and is robustly fond of cowboy and Indian 
pictures. The mother denies that her boy ever plays 
with the girls. Sometimes he helps her with her 
business, and displays in this a modicum at least of 
his race's proverbial shrewdness. At the same time 
she believes that Samuel has a "weak brain," as she 
expressed it, and in this she agrees with the vague 
estimate placed upon him by the neighbors. 

The home is in what might be termed the "Yiddish 
quarter". The streets in this district are lined with 
dwelling houses, the lower front parts of which have 
been converted into stores and markets. In the 



94 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

particular street where S. lives, the street is broad, but 
the pavements are filled with stalls where live chickens 
are sold. 

The family, consisting of Samuel and his mother, 
live in one very small room, located on the first floor 
at the back, and lighted by one window, which is 
kept open all the time. Mrs. H., described as being 
a rather comely woman, apparently about forty years 
old and dressed carefully and neatly for her class, 
sells cotton goods on the street near her house. On 
the first visit made to the home she was very friendly 
and said she appreciated all that was being done for 
Samuel by every one. She is bright, quick, nervous 
in appearance, and does not speak or understand very 
much English, although it was possible to talk with 
fair understanding about her boy, to whom she is 
devoted, as he is to her. 

With this record, and classified as a high grade 
mental defective capable of some education, S. entered 
the special class on July 5th. 

14. Abraham Leschitisky is a boy now eight years 
old, brought first to the Chnic on July 3, 1909, by his 
mother on account of certain defects of speech. His 
pedagogical career, which was greatly hampered by 
this speech defect, began on December 15, 1909, in 
the kindergarten of a neighborhood house in the lower 
part of the city where he lives. During the winter 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 95 

of 1910 and 1911 he attended a public school, but was 
reported as backward. 

His personal history is not very promising. At one 
and a half years of age he had meningitis, followed at 
five and a half years by diphtheria, which confined him 
to the Municipal Hospital for three weeks. Before 
the meningitis he had begun to talk, but afterwards 
failed to make much progress and still continues to 
enunciate with an infantile stammer. He is able to 
sound most of the consonants, and to pronounce "a," 
"e," "i," "o" but says " 00 " for "u". In the immediate 
family there are four other children all of whom are 
apparently normal though slow to speak. The father 
and mother are both Russians. They are both in good 
health; and nothing abnormal could be found in the 
family history of either parent. 

In personal appearance the child is slightly built 
and undernourished, with a head box-shaped and 
suggesting rickets. His shoulders droop, the left 
shoulder is higher than the right and his footstep is 
dragging and listless. His whole manner is one of 
fatigue and lack of interest. On July 7th his height 
was 115 cm., his weight 21 kg.; upper chest expan- 
sion 1.5 inches, lower chest expansion 2.5 inches; girth 
of his head was only 19 inches, with a biparietal dimen- 
sion of 5.25 inches; occipito-frontal 6.5 inches, and 
occipito-mental 7.5 inches. His skin is clear, his 



96 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

eyes are large, the vision normal. His ears are large 
and stand out well from his head and his hearing is 
dull. His nose and throat, teeth and chest are normal. 

The mental capacity of this boy on account of his 
Russian surroundings, his partial deafness and general 
poor physical condition, is very hard to determine. 
After he started going to the kindergarten his teacher 
reported that he was doing remarkably well, but upon 
his entrance to the public school the report was the 
very opposite of this. He learned to copy things, but 
did not learn to read, though the teacher thought he 
could improve with individual attention. On Novem- 
ber 21, 1910, he was sent to a country home at Gwynedd, 
where he remained four weeks and where his physical 
condition was greatly improved. From this home 
came the report that he chattered a great deal. On 
February 17, 1911, he was entered in the special speech 
class at the University of Pennsylvania. On July 5th 
he entered the special class. 

On July 25, 1911, a Clinic visitor found Abraham's 
family housed in a small two-story dwelling on a narrow 
residence street in a poor quarter of the city. The 
house was clean and fresh, with a small front room 
used as a parlor, very neatly furnished, but rather 
crowded. The kitchen was clean, with door and 
window opening into a yard which presented a most 
attractive appearance from the front of the house. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 97 

with morning-glories climbing up the strings stretched 
from fence to kitchen, under which the family table 
was set and where the meals were sometimes eaten. 
A bench and a swing in the yard attested the thought- 
fulness of these people for their children. 

Abraham eats very little at any time, drinking a 
cup of coffee and perhaps eating a piece of bread for 
breakfast, getting lunch at the special class, and going 
to bed after a light supper. He and his brother sleep 
in separate beds in the same room supplied with plenty 
of fresh air, but he does not sleep very well on account 
of dry nasal mucous membrane, for which he has had 
some treatment at the University Hospital. 

15. Clara Sampson was a short, old-fashioned 
looking little girl of eight years when her father first 
brought her to the Clinic on April 29, 1911, on account 
of backwardness in school. She had been entered 
in a kindergarten and had been attending about a 
year without making any noticeable progress. In the 
minds of her parents there appeared to be no cause 
for this backwardness. Her birth was normal and 
at full time, and though she was small at birth she 
began growing naturally if slowly. At fifteen months 
of age she began to walk, but did not talk until very 
late, and at the time of her visit was still very backward 
in this respect. The first time the parents noticed 
any difference between her and the other children was 



98 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

after an attack of whooping cough when she was 
about one year old. Although since that time she 
has had no serious illnesses, yet she has been steadily 
falling behind her brothers and sisters in normal 
progress. 

In the immediate family there are four children, 
of whom Clara is the second child. All the other 
three are normal in every way. The father is a farmer, 
strong and healthy, who comes from a very long-lived 
family. The father's grandfather, however, died from 
tuberculosis. The mother of the child is living, but 
has had frequent fainting spells brought on by over- 
excitement, though otherwise she appears to be a 
healthy woman. Tuberculosis also appeared in one 
of her sisters and her sister's daughter, both of whom 
died of this disease. 

Physically, the child appears well formed, with no 
special stigmata of ears or face, although she presented 
at her first visit to the Clinic a slight appearance of 
the adenoid physiognomy with the depressed nose, 
the high palate, the tonsils enlarged and very much 
inflamed and the mouth occasionally held open. Her 
teeth were badly decayed and a catarrhal condition 
was indicated. The skin was dry with dark pigmenta- 
tion present and the hands slightly cyanosed. The 
hearing appeared to be very much diminished. Her 
head presented no abnormalities except a noticeable 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 99 

microcephaly. The skull girth is 19 inches; biparietal 
dimension 5 inches; occipito-frontal 7 inches; occipi- 
to-mental 7.5 inches. As already noted the child is 
somewhat short, her height being 120.5 cm. and her 
weight 23.7 kilograms. The grip of her right hand is 
10 kilos and of her left 8; haemoglobin test on July 3d, 
70. 

When given the form board to work, she placed the 
blocks correctly and in the normal way. At first she 
did not seem to know her colors, but after a little 
instruction learned red, green, yellow and blue. Her 
father reported that the child seemed very bright in 
some things and could do them well. For example, 
she washes dishes, plays jacks with the other children 
and engages in children's games without difficulty. 
She is very bashful and sensitive and at times exhibits 
a marked temper. She is able to dress herself com- 
pletely except the buttoning of buttons in the back 
of her dress. She is able to eat at the table and in 
every way care for herself. From April 29, 1911, to 
June 28, 1911, she was in the care of the Woman's 
Hospital of Philadelphia. During that time her nose 
and throat were treated and adenoids removed; her 
eyes were refracted and glasses fitted; four teeth and 
some roots were extracted, and local treatment admin- 
istered for gonorrheal vaginitis, which she had con- 
tracted, probably at school, unknown to her parents. 



100 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

From the hospital she went to a boarding home and 
was admitted to the special class on July 5th. 

16. Robert Schmidt was brought to the Clinic on 
July 22, 1910, by his mother and by his teacher in the 
public school on account of his backwardness and 
speech defect. 

The personal history of the child showed that his 
birth had been instrumental, that he weighed thirteen 
pounds when born, and was nursed by his mother. 
He began to walk at fourteen months of age, but did 
not talk until two years and never has talked plainly. 
His first teeth did not appear until he was a little over 
a year old. During his babyhood, when about a year 
old, he suffered from membranous croup, which was 
followed at the age of four by a slight attack of scarlet 
fever. His speech defect called attention to his throat, 
and at five, his tonsils were removed, with almost 
immediate improvement in his speech. No other 
illnesses are recorded, and only one serious accident, 
which occurred at the age of eight, when he was run 
down by an automobile. 

The family history revealed no abnormalities on 
either side of the house. His mother, though under a 
great deal of nervous strain and worriment, was in 
good physical health just before he was born. His 
father is living, but has suffered with St. Vitus' dance 
from his birth, though it did not seem to affect him 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 101 

mentally, for his progress in school is reported as good. 
The father's mother and father both died of acute 
diseases, and his brothers and sisters are normal. The 
mother's parents are both living and well, and the 
mother's brothers and sisters are normal. With the 
exception, then, of the father's neurotic condition, no 
bad family history was discovered. Robert's brother, 
who is younger than himself, is doing well in his school 
work and giving no cause of uneasiness. 

The mental examination, beginning with the educa- 
tional history, showed that R. had started school when 
he was six years old, had attended regularly and, at the 
time of his examination, was in the low third grade. 
Pedagogically, he was retarded about one year. His 
teacher reports that he is poor in spelling; that at 
first he did long division well, but was not able to do 
it later on. The mental tests corroborated his poor 
spelling. Such elementary words as "horse" he mis- 
spelled, giving the letters as h-o-s-e. However, he 
was able to read well in the third reader, though his 
enunciation was very poor. He could recollect easily 
what he read, so that he succeeded in acquiring the 
meaning from a printed page. His visual memory 
span was good for three colors, although he failed on 
four. His auditory memory span was good for six 
colors. In such elementary matters as the names of 
colors and distinction of colors, the form board, work 



102 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

with tools, play, and running errands, he was as good 
as any other boy of his own age. He belonged to a 
baseball team and played center field in the game. 
He was reported to be affectionate, obedient, good- 
natured, fond of pets, and exceedingly anxious to learn, 
though he grew excited and nervous whenever he 
undertook a hard mental task. 

His height is 139.7 cm. and his weight is 31.8 kilo- 
grams. His intelligent, pleasant face is wreathed in 
smiles much of the time. His hair is brown and rather 
thin, and his skull dolichocephalic, with rather a broad 
and high forehead sloping backward. His nutrition 
appears to be good, though his circulation is poor, 
as indicated by slight cyanosis of the hands. His 
eye co-ordination, — like his general muscular co- 
ordination, — is good, though there is a slight asymmetry 
present in that the right eye is a little smaller than the 
left. Vision is defective. His ears present no abnormali- 
ties, though the lobes are not as fully developed as they 
might be. He hears a little less on the right side than 
on the left. His nose is broad at the bridge with large 
nostrils and a slight deviation of the septum toward 
the left, the upper lip is somewhat shortened, which 
tends to keep his mouth open. His tongue has been 
operated upon. The teeth are regular and far apart 
and some are decayed. His chest is full and he holds 
himself well. His heart beats strongly. 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 103 

After the examination at the Clinic he was entered 
in the speech class, October 29, 1910, where he remained 
until May 12, 1911. Here he received training weekly 
for his articulation. He did unusually well in building 
up sounds like "st" in "still" and "ish" in "wish," 
though he had special difiiculty with "post". On the 
whole, he made improvement and hope was felt that 
continued training of the same kind would finally 
overcome his speech defect entirely. On May 19th 
arrangements were made to enter him in the special 
class of the Summer School, where he came on July 5th 
and remained until the end. 

After his examination he was diagnosed as normal 
mentally, but retarded in his pedagogical progress on 
account of his speech defect. 

Robert is the only child in a good home, the other 
son having been adopted by relatives. The boy sleeps 
alone; his bedtime is eight o'clock, but he very often 
stays out until later. He gets up at six o'clock, but 
says that he is able to get up at five. His mother says 
he is a sound sleeper and always happy. 

There is a public park near by, and Robert plays 
there a great deal with the other boys of his own age. 
There are two unfavorable influences in his environ- 
ment. The first and less objectionable are the moving 
picture shows, to which he goes two or three times a 
week. The mother does not disapprove of this; on 



104 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

the contrary, she thinks it is good for him, but this 
means that he is often up imtil ten or half past ten. 
It also turns his mind to fighting Indians in the West, 
and going to war, and killing people. The second bad 
influence is a hotel two doors away from his home. 
Here a very rough crowd of boys gather to loaf, talk, 
and play with cigarette cards. The kind of talk which 
goes on in such a crowd is anything but good. R. 
sometimes spends hours at a time playing with the 
cigarette cards, and cannot be persuaded to put them 
away. 

17. George Singer, aged eight years, was first 
brought to the Clinic on May 4, 1911, on account of 
uncontrollable outbreaks of temper, according to the 
statement of his mother, who accompanied him. The 
uncontrollable outbreaks of temper, however, were 
merely symptoms of a deeper and more serious mental 
defect. This did not exhibit itself in the usual form of 
backwardness, for this boy is considered bright. He 
started going to kindergarten in a country town when 
about six years of age. At the time of his examination 
he was attending a city public school and was in the 
third grade A, being about six months in advance of 
his years. At the time of his entrance in the urban 
school, he had been getting along splendidly, but the 
mother thought that she saw a change come over him 
in the two years preceding his examination at the 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 105 

Clinic. Owing to his nervous condition he had been 
kept from school for about three or four months on 
the advice of a physician. When he returned his 
conduct had so far retrograded that he was sent home 
several times by the principal with notes stating that 
his lessons and conduct were both unsatisfactory. 

His mother reported that he was exceedingly bright 
until about two years of age, when she saw a slight 
change. He walked at the age of one year and talked 
at the same time. At the age of two he was talking 
so well that his volubility was remarked and he was 
considered much more advanced in this respect than 
the other children. He had been born naturally, at 
full time, and was a large, fat baby. He is one child 
among six, all of his brothers and sisters being normal 
mentally. One brother is decidedly tuberculous. 

The mother, who is a confirmed invalid with a 
tuberculous tendency, was not well before his birth. 
She herself is nervous and belongs to a neurotic family, 
with one sister reported as being especially nervous. 
Her father died of pneumonia or consumption of the 
throat, and her mother died of heart disease, from 
which she suffered for a long time. 

The father is reported as being healthy and belonging 
to a family of eight children, all of whom were healthy, 
and his parents lived to a good old age. 

In general appearance the boy is slight in build and 



106 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

thin, active in all of his movements, constantly in 
motion and exhibiting the neurotic appearance of a 
precocious child with an exceedingly high estimate of 
himself. His head is rather large for his body, strik- 
ingly lengthened toward the occipito-parietal junction, 
with a girth of 20.25 inches; biparietal dimension 5 
inches; occipito-frontal 7.1; occipito-mental 8.7 
inches. His height is 132.2 cm. and his weight is 21 
kilograms. His eyes and ears present no special 
stigmata and are quite normal. The roof of his mouth 
is rather high. His skin is brown and his mother 
reports that sometimes it turns a greenish-yellow. 
His hands are moist and infantile in shape. Both the 
upper chest expansion and the lower chest expansion 
are two inches in respiration. The grip of his right 
hand is 13 kilos, and the left 14; the haemoglobin test 
on July 10th was 65. 

At the mental examination he showed that he could 
do all the ordinary school work like reading, writing 
and arithmetic of the third grade A. The difficulty 
has never been great with his mental progress, but 
always with his conduct. He is very talkative and 
imaginative and told the examiner that he wanted to 
go to Africa. He tells stories which are manifestly 
untrue, asserting for instance that the teachers have 
cowhide whips in school with which they whip the 
children. His erratic mentality was shown by the 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 107 

fact that on the day of the examination he knew the 
multiplication tables to 5 only, while at other times 
he knew them all. At one time he could draw well 
and spent hours at this occupation, but has given it 
up for no apparent reason. 

About two years previous to the examination he 
woke one night with a screaming spell which his father 
said was temper. He grasped convulsively at the bed 
clothes and continued to scream until overcome with 
a nervous chill. The mother said, however, that on 
the previous night. May 3, 1911, he had had several 
chills of the same nature. Following that attack he 
exhibited a marked change in his behavior. Some- 
times he will obey, but sometimes he cannot be com- 
pelled by punishment or by the offer of any reward 
to do what he is asked. His mother reported that on 
the Saturday before his visit to the Clinic it required 
a full grown boy, a sister and a woman to hold him to 
the floor while in a spasm of extreme anger, in which 
he kicked, bit, scratched, and finally frothed at the 
mouth. Some of his acts are entirely senseless, like 
throwing grass upon the supper table just before the 
meal. In his paroxysms of anger he will break any- 
thing in the house or strike anyone. He is ordinarily 
kind to the other children, but has begun to persecute 
them. He tore up into little bits the zoological garden 
tickets belonging to his brother and would have smashed 



108 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

a vase at the same time had his mother not rescued it. 
He does not regularly lie or steal, but admitted that he 
took some rolls from a doorstep at one time and hid 
them in the hall chest, later giving them to some 
children. When angry he uses language of extreme 
vileness. As a corrective for these fits of temper he 
has been whipped, penned up, and chained, or taken 
to various places of amusement and things bought for 
him, but every attempt whether by kindness or harsh- 
ness has failed. 

At the form board he performed the operation 
successfully in thirty seconds the first time, twenty- 
five seconds the second time, and twelve seconds the 
third time. His case was diagnosed as moral delin- 
quency with maniacal outbreaks. He was recommended 
for examination at the nose and throat clinic. On 
May 8, 1911, arrangements were made to send him to 
the Mary Drexel Home to remove adenoids and tonsils 
and for circumcision. On June 27th a report was 
received that these operations had been performed, 
and since then his mother thinks he has slightly 
improved. 

According to the report of the social worker on July 
3d, part of his conduct is due to the continual vacilla- 
tion and weakness of his mother. She would command 
him to do something and threaten him with punish- 
ment if he did not obey her. Then while he proceeded 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 109 

to carry out exactly what she wished him to do, she 
would sit helplessly by saying, ''Isn't it terrible? 
This is the way it is all the time." Under these cir- 
cumstances obedience is hardly to be expected from a 
boy of this type. 

George comes from a home which cannot be placed 
in any of the three classes mentioned above. Econ- 
omically the home is good, but the mother is a nervous 
invalid, worn out by the constant care of a large number 
of children in the house. Her lack of control over G. 
was evident at the first visit made to the Clinic, and 
subsequent visits to the home have shown it even 
more clearly. The father is too much occupied with 
his work to give the child any attention except occa- 
sional beatings. Added to the disorganized condition of 
the home, owing to the mother's extreme nervousness 
and the absence of the father, the surroundings are 
bad. There is a freight yard close by, where the boys 
of the neighborhood spend a great deal of time in and 
about the cars, and also several stables where ice 
wagons are kept, starting out early in the morning and 
making sleep impossible to any but people with very 
strong nerves. On this account G. was removed from 
his home and placed with one of the Clinic caretakers. 
It was found to be impossible to do anything with him 
mentally or morally until his physical condition could 
first be so built up that he would respond normally 



110 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

to ordinary stimuli, and until he had recovered from 
the irritating effect of the constant nagging of his 
mother and the other children at home. 

18. Oswald Zug, now eleven years old, is a pathetic 
little figure of a boy with a long history of suffering 
and wandering in search of a home. He began life 
as a foundling, kept in a county poorhouse in the central 
part of Pennsylvania, lodged with the lowest class of 
paupers. Efforts were made to place him perman- 
ently in some private home, but no one cared to be 
burdened with a child so frail and suffering from the 
effects of a serious disease. 

Eventually he fell into the hands of the Pennsyl- 
vania Children's Aid Society, who hoped to find some 
medical relief for his congenital affliction. He was 
examined by several specialists, among them Drs. 
White, Fetterolf, Burr, and Drayton of the Ortho- 
pedic Hospital, who made a diagnosis of congenital 
cerehro-spinal syphilis, and by Dr. Frazier, by whom 
the Society was advised to bring him to the Psychologi- 
cal Clinic for his mental retardation which manifested 
itself chiefly in his inability to talk. The medical 
treatment has been carried out under the direction of 
Dr. Burr and Dr. Drayton, who have taken a per- 
sonal interest in the case which has greatly assisted 
in the boy's advancement. 

On January 9, 1911, Oswald made his first appear- 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. Ill 

ance at the Clinic, where his family and personal history 
were investigated. This boy was born naturally, at full 
time, and suckled immediately, but was a cross baby 
and cried much when awake. He cut his first tooth 
at nine months, but was not able to sit up until one and 
a half years of age and did not walk until he was 
four years old. On account of his tongue-paralysis 
he has never been able to talk plainly or connectedly, 
but utters sounds which strangers find impossible to 
understand. Nothing could be learned concerning his 
pedagogical history except that he had been at the Penn- 
sylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb at Mt. 
Airy, Philadelphia, for several months, from which 
Institution he was discharged on account of having 
good hearing. 

The reports concerning his early life and family history 
are comparatively meager. It is known that his father, 
who was a coal miner, is dead, but nothing is known 
of his mother's whereabouts. It is reported that 
the child resembles his mother, who was twenty years 
old at his birth, and not in good health just before he 
was born, though she had to work up until nearly 
the time of her delivery. Her father is living at the 
age of sixty-four and has the ordinary health of a man 
of his age. Her mother died at the age of forty-eight, 
having given birth to eleven children, three of whom 
are living. All of her brothers and sisters are normal. 



112 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Oswald's father died of typhoid fever, being survived 
by his father who, at the age of seventy-four is in 
apparently good health, but nothing is reported of his 
mother. A vague report was received that tubercu- 
losis existed in the family, but in what branch or in 
what degree is not known. 

The general appearance of Oswald, though it has 
improved since his first coming to the Clinic, immedi- 
ately touches the sympathies of those who see him. 
He has the posture and gait of an old man joined with 
the stature and physiognomy of a child. He walks 
somewhat uncertainly, as though partly feeling his way, 
with his hands held half outstretched ready to seize 
some object for support in case he should stumble. 
This position of the hands at first gives one the im- 
pression that the boy is suffering from spastic paralysis. 
His mouth is usually held open in the position sometimes 
seen in one who is trying to perform a difiicult manual 
feat, like attempting for the first time to cut with 
scissors. His eyes roll like those of a person balancing 
himself and unable to turn his head. Both of these 
conditions, — ^his open mouth and rolling eyes, — ^are 
accentuated when he makes his pitiful and earnest 
endeavors to talk. This inability appears to be the 
most overt sign of his retardation, though he is equally 
retarded in other mental and manual attainments. 

The physical examination made at the time of his 



CHILDREN OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 113 

first visit to the Clinic corroborated the first impres- 
sion one receives of his being under height and under 
weight. On January 5, 1911, he weighed 21.3 kg., but 
by July 5, 1911, he had gained 1.7 kg., or about three 
pounds. On the latter date the grip of his right hand 
was 10 kg. and of the left 8 kg. ; his upper chest expan- 
sion was 1.5 inches and the lower chest expansion 1.75 
inches, girth of head 19 inches, biparietal diameter 5 
inches; occipito-frontal 6.75 inches; occipito-mental 
7.75 inches. 

The general disposition of Oswald is good. He has 
no bad habits; he is good-natured, docile, kind and 
affectionate. At times when he is down-hearted he 
indicates that he wishes he were with his mother who 
is dead, but whom he remembers well. At first among 
strangers he seems fearful, but when his shyness wears 
off and his confidence is gained he responds well to 
gentle treatment. 

On account of Oswald's inability to express himself 
in words it was difficult, and still remains difficult, 
to determine the exact degree of his mentality. Many 
mental tests, like Binet and other pedagogical tests, 
depend upon vocal expression, and could not, therefore, 
be applied to him. However, his mental capacity is 
greater than would at first appear from his looks or 
actions. He could hear and understand what was said 
to him, could make himself understood by signs and the 



114 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

rudiments of writing, and excepting for the effects 
of the specific congenital disease, seemed to be normal. 
This opinion has since been strengthened by the exper- 
ience of those who have had him under observation and 
to whom he has revealed much of his past, — the occu- 
pation of his foster father, a painter who fell from a 
ladder and was killed, and his mother's death, the 
mode of which cannot be made out, for Oswald acts 
all these events in pantomine. 

Since his most significant defect was his mutism, due 
to partial paralysis the result of his disease, his chief 
training has been all along devoted to teaching him 
to talk. On February 20, 1911, his first speech lesson 
was begun with simple exercises for developing the 
upper lip muscles. In spite of an irritating cough the 
speech training was continued, with two to four lessons 
weekly until May 2, 1911, during which time he 
showed steady though slow improvement. Beginning 
April 4th he was given regular gymnastic training 
on Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week, which he 
continued more or less regularly until July 5th. His 
advance at the gymnasium during this period and at 
a later time was greatly interfered with by his physical 
condition, which varies from extreme lassitude and 
weakness to a fair degree of strength, dependent some- 
what upon the medical treatment he is receiving for the 
specific disease from which he suffers. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Educational Organization, 
by elizabeth e. farrell. 

The organization of the special class will be considered 
under two heads, — the organization done before July 
5, 1911, and that which was necessary after the children 
were present. In preparation for the real work, an 
organization on paper was perfected. This had to do 
with a scheme of work which seemed possible of 
accomplishment; the grouping of the children accord- 
ing to their ability as indicated in the reports submitted; 
the statement of the pedagogical problem presented 
by each child; the laying out of a time schedule or 
program of exercises; the selection of teachers, and the 
assignment of work to them. The second phase of 
the organization concerns those factors of school 
environment which bear particularly on the physical 
well-being of the children. These are the adjustment 
of furniture, assignment of seats, desks, and wardrobe 
room, and similar matters. 

The paper organization was the result of a series 
of conferences between Miss Walsh, Mrs. Pfeiffer, 
and myself. The problems of this phase of the 
work naturally center around a plan of campaign. 

(115) 



116 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

To suggest some of these problems will be sufficient. 
The attendance of children upon summer schools is 
rarely if ever satisfactory. The reasons for this are 
obvious, — the holiday spirit is in the air; the weather 
is prohibitive of persistent effort; for backward 
children school is not a synonym for pleasure, happi- 
ness, success. To overcome these difficulties it was 
necessary to put forward a most attractive place. The 
school now more than ever must compete with its 
only real competitor, the street. To fail would be to 
acknowledge that the fortuitous education of the street 
must always and ever count for more in a child's life 
than the well-ordered, logical, and psychologically 
adapted regimen of formal education. The problem 
thus became analytic. What is the attraction of the 
streets? First and foremost is the constantly changing 
activity. The boy is never bored by his street life. 
When one thing ceases to attract, it is pushed aside 
and he attends to the new and the interesting. The 
activity goes from hanging on wagons, with its con- 
sequent danger and interest, to listening to the street 
musicians with their bright, catchy tunes. Here then 
was the first principle upon which the summer school 
was to be built. It must be at least as attractive as 
the street in the variety of activity offered. 

Upon further analysis it was determined to make the 
school a place for backward children where pleasure, 



THE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 117 

happiness, and success were the dominant, notes in its 
daily symphony of effort. This necessitated a strong 
appeal to each child, which should not be below and 
certainly not above the psychological level at which 
he lives. The question was again, what are the interests 
of the street? Concretely they are the ash cans, the 
garbage barrels, the policeman, the thousand and one 
dangers which grown men and women have forgotten, 
but which have a positive contribution to make to the 
development of each individual. What the school 
must do is to utilize the interest which leads boys and 
girls to investigate cans and garbage barrels; it must 
make available the interest of the street dangers, — 
not some of those dangers, but all that any particular 
child might need. In a word, the chief principle of this 
summer school should be, — the child must use any kind 
of power, all the power he has. He must not be saved 
from his instinctive life. That life must be uncon- 
sciously directed in order that in a very real way he may 
some day reap the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance, — these things, 
though so desirable, cannot be imposed on the child. 
When they are so imposed the result is the letter, not 
the spirit; the husk, not the kernel. 

As the sluggard went to the ant, so the school must 
go to the street. It has lessons more fundamental 
than the school. The boy needs its teaching quite as 



118 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

much as that of the school; to separate them is to fail. 
To cry down the street and to laud the school is to 
confess an ignorance of those conditions and of that 
innate energy by means of which alone man was able 
to stand erect and to grasp with his hand. The summer 
school sought to utilize the power which has made men. 
This was done by correlating all work around the inter- 
ests based upon the instinctive life of the child. The 
constructive instinct, the proprietary instinct, the 
play instinct, the parental instinct, and so on, found 
material for their use in the consideration of "My 
Home". That the plan was fundamentally right the 
statement of the work accomplished will seek to prove. 

The second consideration was that of grouping the 
children according to the ability of each as indicated 
in the reports submitted. There were two reports for 
each of the original fifteen children. One gave the 
Psychological Clinic record, the other was a state- 
ment from the principal of the public school where the 
child was enrolled. The Psychological Clinic's state- 
ment appears in the preceding chapter. 

The second report, that from the public school 
principals, gave information as to the child's age, 
nationality, and the economic status of his family, 
his physical condition, his school history with certain 
statements regarding the child's special tastes, pecu- 
liarities, etc. 



THE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 119 

Observations on Children Proposed for a 
Special Class. 

P.S District 

Name Address 

Age Grade Nationality F M 

Yrs. in U. S Home Conditions 

Health Record: Nutrition Bone Dis Enl. Gl 

Teeth Throat Nose Vision R L 

Hearing R L Nervous Disease 

School Record: K'ndg terms lA terms IB terms 

2A terms 2B terms 3A terms 3B terms 

Sp'c'l terms. School Att Cause of Irreg. Att 

Absence in last two terms Attention Memory 

Oral Exp Hand Work Phys. Tr Number 

Reading Writing Sp. Tastes 

Disposition Behavior Habits 

Peculiarities 

Other Information 

„ 19 - -. 

Principal. 



120 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

These records furnished a sad commentary on the 
ability of elementary school teachers to observe 
children. When it is recalled that all of these children 
were backward in their school work, and that the greater 
number were reported as at least hard to con- 
trol, it is significant that under the heading "Special 
tastes and peculiarities," the statement "Do not 
know" is made so many times. The problem in hand 
now was the grouping of the children and defining in 
its lowest terms the pedagogical problem presented 
by each. The first group represents the best, the 
third, the poorest mental power. 

Groupings, July 5, 1911. 

Best 2d best 3d best 

Samuel H. Richmond B. Abraham L. 

Julia C. Oswald Z. Russell F. 

Giovanni A. Morgan C. Flora C. 

Wilbur B. Gertrude B. Clara S. 

Agnes D. 
Ernest H. 
Robert S. 

The time schedule or school program was modelled 
on the same lines as those in use in ordinary ungraded 
classes and schools, and appears on the next page» 



THE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 121 
Daily Programme of Special Class, 1911. 



Divisions 


A 


B 


C 


9.00- 9.15 


Opening Exercises all together 


9.15- 9.30 


Morning talk to all 


9.30- 9.45 


Written 
language 


Oral 
reproduction 




9.45-10.00 


Paper language 


Language B.B. 


Manual work 


10.00-10.15 


Nunaber 


Number 


Number 


10.15-10.30 


Relaxation 


Relaxation 


Relaxation 


10.30-11.00 


Manual work 


Manual work 


Reading 


11.00-11.30 


Reading 


Reading 


Quiet work 


11.30-12.30 


Gymnasium and pool 


12.30- 2.00 


Luncheon and rest 


2.00- 2.20 


Drawing 


Drawing 


Sense training 


- 2.20- 2.40 


Sense training 


Sense training 


Drawing 


2.40- 3.00 


Games 


Games 


Games 


3.00- 3.15 


Physical work — all children 


3.15- 3.30 


Folk dancing 




Corrective for 
children who 
need 


3.30- 4.00 


Articulation 




Story 
dramatization 



122 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

The most essential problem of the "paper organiza- 
tion" was the selection of teachers. Only such teachers 
as believed in the fundamental principles of work for 
backward children as they are indicated above, and 
only such as could live the faith that was in them, 
should be asked to carry on the summer work. Out 
of a large number of excellent teachers, Miss Elizabeth 
A. Walsh, of Public School No. 165, New York, and 
Mrs. Margaret Pfeiffer, of Public School No. 10, Brook- 
lyn, were asked to help in the special class. Each 
of these women for several years has done distinguished 
work in ungraded classes in New York City. They 
possess in rare degree that type of mind which seeks 
for the explanation of conditions found to exist. This 
explanation they sought in the study of anatomy and 
psychology under the direction of imiversity authorities. 
Modern treatment of mental disease and defect they 
observed in the best schools and hospitals in the East. 
Motor training from the side of technique found no 
place in their philosophy of education, but from the 
side of evolution it offered the same opportunity to 
these children as that enjoyed by primitive man, on 
whose level of mentality they probably live. A kind 
of ability not often possessed by teachers of any grade, 
the power and patience to train speech, was one of the 
good things Miss Walsh and Mrs. Pfeiffer brought to the 
work. Incorrect speech in children has not until very 



THE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 123 

recently received attention from teachers. This made 
it difficult to get control of the knowledge extant on 
the subject. Only a comparatively small amount of 
all that is being done in developing and training speech 
is available in book form. This made it necessary 
for these teachers to make pilgrimages similar to those 
so common in the Middle Ages, when earnest students 
went from place to place in order to be instructed by 
the master in any given subject. 

The matter of organization so far as it could be 
perfected before July 5th was now finished. On the 
first day of the session the tables and chairs were 
properly adjusted for the use of the children. The tools 
were distributed and the work of the summer begun. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Work of the Special Class. 
by elizabeth e. farrell. 

When the children reported on July 5, 1911, the regu- 
lar school exercises took place. For the purpose of 
discussion, these exercises will be considered as physical, 
manual, and so-called school work, i. e. reading, num- 
ber, etc. The physical exercises include all those 
activities which were intended to promote physical, 
efficiency. They fall under the headings of formal 
gymnastics, corrective gymnastics, organized games 
and plays, folk dancing, luncheon, and the rest period. 
All the children took part in all the formal physical 
exercises when the term began. As the days went by, 
certain children showed ability to do more advanced 
work, and there came to be groups doing wand work, 
others doing dumb-bell work, and during the last two 
weeks, a group was able to handle Indian clubs in a 
very satisfactory fashion. Organized play appealed to 
all the children, while the folk dancing was of use only 
with the younger children. 

Luncheon was served at 12.30 each day. The 
food was sent in from a restaurant. The girls set the 
table, and the boys cleared up and washed the dishes. 

(124) 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 125 

One of the most satisfactory bits of work done during 
the session was connected with the luncheon. It was 
a mental task for the girls to get the right number of 
places set. To cut the bread was a task which only two 
girls, Julia and Flora, were at all able to perform in a 
satisfactory manner. The placing of knives and forks, 
pouring the milk, passing the butter, etc., afforded 
the best kind of motor training. The behavior of the 
boys and girls was a pleasure to witness as they became 
able to carry on conversation in a quiet way and to ask 
with patience to be helped to more food. The eager- 
ness with which the boys washed the dishes was a con- 
stant surprise. From the biggest to the littlest they 
asked for a turn. Besides washing dishes, they swept 
the room and put it in order for the children who were to 
return for their afternoon nap. When all had finished 
eating, the boys went downstairs and the girls to the 
cloak room, to brush their teeth. This habit was formed 
very quickly. No child had to be forced to do it. As 
soon as the teeth were brushed, the sleep time had 
arrived. The rest was taken in steamer chairs 
placed out under the trees, when conditions per- 
mitted, or in the class room. After a day or two, 
each child slept or kept quiet in his chair for one 
hour. The following is a detailed statement of the 
rest period: 



126 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Sleep Record 

Giovanni A. . ..////// 6 

Wilbur B mil mill nil 15 

Richmond B. . ./////// 7 

Henry B 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 

Morgan C // 2 

Russell F ////////// 10 

Ernest H never slept. 

Samuel H //////////// 12 

David L Ill nil II 1 10 

Abraham L. ; ..////////////////////////////■ • • 28 

Roberts ///// 5 

George S 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 15 

Oswald Z ///////////////////// 21 

Gertrude B . . . . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 III 1 1 18 

Flora C ////////////// 14 

Julia C never slept. 

Agnes D // 2 

Clara S I III 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 18 

Susan C //// 4 

The manual training centered about the building of 
a doll's house. The children were asked to bring a 
wooden box. The ordinary soap box was best. Ten 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. nl 

children started the house; nine brought the problem 
through to completion. Giovanni got discouraged 
with the sawing. He seemed to lack the imagination 
necessary to carry him along. The piece of work that 
required the greatest attention span was done by 
Samuel. He made a stool with a caned seat. The 
frame of the stool he made himself, measured, squared, 
and put it together with dowels. The holes for the 
caning he had considerable trouble with, but finally 
got them worked out. The exercise took the greater 
part of two weeks. To have stuck by it seems to dis- 
prove his teacher's statement about his "attention 
fair". The construction of the house involved work 
with textiles, clay, water color, etc. As in the physical 
training, all the children were given the same work, 
the same opportunity for effort. As the days passed, 
they grouped themselves and differentiated their 
work until upon completion each child's work was quite 
different from the rest. Each bore the stamp of the 
child's personality. Uniformity did not prevail. The 
mistakes even were interesting to look upon, not that 
the children dreamed that mistakes had been made, — 
and who can say that they were mistakes? There was 
also a great difference in the amount of work. Some 
children had made furniture, others had oilcloth and 
rugs in their houses; still others, pictures and lace 
curtains. 



128 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Academic Work. 

The thing that was most interesting was the work 
done in the usually recognized school subjects, reading, 
number, language, etc. In these again the children 
themselves indicated what was to be done. All listened 
to the story, and each reproduced it according to his 
ability. The main interest in this is connected with 
the following children: Robert, Ernest, George, Julia, 
Gertrude and David. The first written language work 
with this group was done on the black-board. It was a 
reproduction of the morning talk. From a garbled, 
badly written account of the talk, these children 
learned to write sentences correctly and to arrange in 
a more or less orderly manner the work in hand. Each 
child selected his own spelling words. The gain in 
time, interest and responsibility is to be reckoned 
with here. 

In conclusion I want to say that the purpose of the 
school was to interest the children, to direct their 
activities and to improve their physical condition. 
That they were interested is proved by the attendance 
(see following table) . That their activities were directed 
is proved by the variety of work and effort that blos- 
somed as finished products. (See illustrations, plates 
XXI-XXXII.) That the physical efficiency of each 
child has been promoted will appear in another report. 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 129 

Statistics op Attendance. 

Aggregate attendance 559 

Average daily attendance 18.6 

Per cent of attendance 983 

Present every day 12 

(Including a normal boy.) 

Absent one day 6 

Absent more than one day 1 

(3 days due to illness and treatment at 

hospital.) 

The physical training of the children required some 
care and management in order to bring about the best 
results. It was possible to accommodate the boys in 
the regular University gymnasium at Weightman Hall 
for both their physical exercises and their swimming 
lessons. The girls were given their regular calisthenics 
by the teachers of the special class in the rooms where 
the regular daily instruction was given. Dumb-bells 
and Indian clubs were provided for the purpose and 
the exercises were also calculated to correct any 
postural defects and to give the requisite relaxation 
from regular class work. 

The boys, twelve in number, were placed under the 
instruction of Mr. Oscar E. Gerney, Assistant Instructor 
of Gymnastics in the Physical Department of the 
University Summer School, whose professional training 
for gymnastic instruction and whose experience in the 



130 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Nicetown Boys' Club fitted him admirably for this 
part of the special class work. The following account 
of the boys' physical training is summarized from his 
report. 

The physical instruction was given daily from 11.30 
to 12 o'clock on the gymnasium floor. On July 11th 
the class work began with simple movements requiring 
little co-ordination but such as would hold the atten- 
tion of all the boys at the same time. For example, the 
first movement consisted in placing the hands upon the 
hips all together, holding them there for several seconds 
and then at the command of "Place" returning them 
to the first position of attention. From this simple 
movement those requiring greater co-ordination were 
gradually developed. At the word of command the 
boys all charged to the right, at the same time raising 
the right arm flexed in front of the forehead and plac- 
ing the left arm across the small of the back. This 
movement was repeated several times and then changed 
to the opposite movement with the left arm flexed 
across the forehead and the right arm across the back. 
At the end of each drill lasting about fifteen minutes 
daily, several varieties of quick movements were given 
to stimulate the circulation, to bring into play larger 
groups of muscles and to warm up the boys preparatory 
to the better enjoyment of the succeeding shower 
bath or swim. These exhilarating exercises included 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 131 

repeated abducting thigh-movements with both arms 
at the side, stationary running and stationary jumping, 
until all the boys were blowing vigorously, and the 
day's lesson wound up with three deep breaths. 

A game of indoor baseball usually followed immedi- 
ately after the exercises. In the beginning the majority 
of the boys knew nothing about the game, the positions, 
or the manner of catching the ball, and were very 
clumsy at throwing and batting. Robert was an 
exception to the rest of the boys in this respect. At 
the end of the six weeks, however, all of them except 
Russell and Oswald had become moderately well 
acquainted with the game and engaged in it with a 
fair degree of skill. In the case of these two exceptions 
it was the neuro-pathological condition which ham- 
pered Oswald, a partial paralytic, and Russell, a 
flighty little creature given to hysterics. 

Sometimes the baseball game was varied by relay 
races. This game was introduced not only for the 
sake of co-ordination and the zest of contest, but for 
the training in patience which it cultivates. At first 
the lack of patience in waiting until the boy was tagged 
by the previous runner was manifest. However, the 
necessary self-control was soon developed, so that the 
boys could contain themselves sufficiently to run most 
exciting races. 

On account of the use of the gymnasium by other 



1S2 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Summer School students it was necessary to make 
arrnngemonts for swimming lessons three times one 
week and twice the following week. The lessons were 
given in the largo pool in the gymnasium under the 
special swinuning teacher, Mr. Thomas G. Whittaker, 
and each boy was put through the regular course 
of instruction, being directed and supported individu- 
ally by the instructor who took his place for the pur- 
pose in the water beside them. On their first visit 
to the pool none of the boys could swim and most of 
them were afraid of the water, and this fear was so 
excessive in the case of Morgan, Russell, and Oswald 
that they were not forced to go in at all. Giovanni 
was the only boy who did not show any fear, though 
Robert was the first to learn to swim. He was soon 
followed in acquiring the art by three others, Giovanni, 
Abraham and Samuel. 

On the whole the physical work of the class has 
been good. Every day up to the end of the term the 
boys showed improvement in their movements and in 
their attention, gave every evidence of enjoj'ing the 
exercises and showed ambition to improve in their 
tasks, and not only were able to perform their old exer- 
cises with exactness of movement, but showed an 
increasing capacity to learn new exercises. As com- 
pared with classes of so-called normal boys their 
conduct was exceptionally good. At first it was hard to 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 133 

secure obedience to commands, but that seemed to be 
due chiefly to lack of attention. When their attention 
was gained and they were kept busy all of the time 
without pauses, the obedience was all that could be 
desired. The following is a report in detail of each boy 
as submitted by the instructor. 

Giovanni, the boy who took so readily to the water, 
also showed a marked interest in the floor work and 
derived a great deal of benefit from it both in notice- 
ably improved co-ordination and conduct. During the 
sessions he had to be disciplined several times for using 
bad language. 

Richmond is a large, clumsy, loose-jointed, bear-cub 
looking boy. When he first came to the gymnasium 
he was unable to dress and undress himself, but on 
account of the exigency of the occasion and the absence 
of anyone to help him, he soon acquired the art and 
at the end of the term was able to undress and dresa 
himself completely without aid. He went regularly 
into the pool, but was so much afraid of the water that 
he made practically no progress in swimming. 

Wilbur is another boy whose fear of the water 
prevented any great progress toward swimming. He 
preferred the shower ?jath to the pool whenever he 
had the opportunity of making a choice. His atten- 
tion in the gymnasium and his co-ordination in the 
exercises are reported good. Great kindliness of dii?- 



134 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

position showed itself in his attention to Oswald and 
Russell, the two smallest and most helpless boys of 
the group, who needed his help in dressing and un- 
dressing. 

Henry, the boy who came in somewhat late, at first 
refused to go on the floor, but gradually began to take 
an interest in the gymnasium and in the games, and so 
finally was incorporated in the class as one of the good 
pupils. His diffidence extended also to the pool and it 
required some days before he found confidence enough 
to try the water, where he was able to make very 
little progress in learning to swim. 

Morgan improved wonderfully in ability to con- 
centrate his attention upon the commands of the 
instructor and upon the work in hand, and his co-ordi- 
nation improved somewhat, but still remains poor. He 
never plucked up courage enough to go into the water, 
and though all efforts short of force were used, this 
was not resorted to because an epileptic seizure was 
possible. Morgan was one day characteristically twitted 
by Robert, the leader, who said to him, "You say you 
can swim, but you won't go in. Some time you will 
be on a big boat and when the boat goes down, saying 
you can swim won't save you, and you'll drown." 

Russell also, on account of his pathological condi- 
tion, was not compelled to enter the pool, as there 
was distinct danger of bringing on a hysterical attack. 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 135 

In gymnasium work, however, he did very much better 
than was expected, considering his extremely inco- 
ordinate and excitable condition. 

Ernest, whose supine "goodness" is evident in every 
feature of his countenance, is reported as being less 
individualistic than any other of the boys. He seemed 
unable to pay attention to the commands or to the 
exercises, and was usually found dreaming away his 
time or drifting aimlessly from one thing to another. 
Neither the exercises nor the games claimed any large 
share of his interest, and he usually followed docilely 
the lead of the stronger characters. In the swimming 
pool he made his best showing and would have learned 
to swim had the class continued for a little longer 
time. 

Abraham, a little dark-eyed, pale-faced Jewish boy, 
made more progress than probably any other boy of 
the class. At first he was so timid and nervous that 
he was unable to take his part in any games or exercises, 
but by close attention and application soon learned the 
movements, and at the end was able to play the games 
as well as any boy in the class. 

Samuel's attention was very hard to get. In a game 
he became greatly excited and at first was unable to 
exercise any control whatever over his actions, but 
would spend his time rushing about in the baseball field 
to encourage his team-mates without really doing any- 



136 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

thing. Gradually he improved in this respect and be- 
came a good player and good worker on the floor. 

Robert took his place naturally as the leader of the 
boys. In all of its phases he took hold of the work and 
put into it more of the vim and vigor of a normal boy 
than any of the rest. He was universally obedient to 
the instructor and kind to the other boys, and his 
feeling of his relation to the group as well as his "gang" 
instinct manifested itself on day in the following way. 
One day Giovanni, a typical street urchin, swore a 
little more emphatically than usual over a stubborn shoe- 
lace that refused to find its proper hole. The instructor 
happened to overhear him and said, "If you ever 
talk like that again here, I'll wash out your mouth 
with soap." Then Robert volunteered, "That's what 
I keep telling him, but he talks that way all the time." 
"Don't tell him," replied the instructor, "but come and 
tell me and I'll attend to him." But Robert shook 
his head. "No, I couldn't do that. It's all right if 
you hear him, but I couldn't tell on him." 

George, true to his inordinate love of self-glory and 
desire to attract attention by mischief if no other way 
presents itself, has given more trouble in gymnasium 
and swimming than any other boy. His inattention 
to the duty in hand was deliberate here, as every- 
where else. He was usually ready to start a movement, 
but after the command was given would keep up with 



WORK OF THE SPECIAL CLASS. 137 

the class only for three or four counts, when his roving 
eyes would be attracted by something else and his 
mind would begin to plan how he might detach himself 
from the group and show off. This inattention extended 
itself even to the games where most of the boys were 
completely absorbed. Unless he was closely watched 
he would leave the game and go off in a corner to try 
some feat by himself. His fear of the water was 
excessive, so much so that, in the absence of any fear 
of bad results on the part of the teachers, he was 
made to take his swimming lesson and was thrust 
under the shower bath by main force. He was char- 
acteristically careless about drying himself and would 
bundle hurriedly into his clothes half wet, unless com- 
pelled to wipe himself thoroughly. 

Oswald, though he began the daily exercises, did not 
attend the gymnasium regularly on account of visits to 
the physician and on account of his physical condition 
as described in the previous notes. It was found to 
be inadvisable, on account of his lack of strength, to 
give him swimming lessons. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Round Table Discussions with Student 
Observers. 

by elizabeth e. farrell. 

[Editorial note : During the first half of the summer session 
Miss Farrell met students taking the observation course once 
each week for formal discussion. For the most part the students 
themselves introduced the topics of discussion by asking ques- 
tions. Miss Farrell's contributions to the round table were so 
helpful to students interested in the special class, that I have 
thought they would be of service to others, if published as a 
part of this volume. The discussions were reported by a sten- 
ographer, and the following transcriptions have been made from 
her notes. The text as given makes no attempt at rounding 
out the discussions into a chapter on method, nor at transform- 
ing the off-hand expressions of spontaneous discussion into more 
formal discourse. During the latter half of the session Miss 
Farrell met the students twice a day, and three times on Thurs- 
days, for more informal discussion, but these conferences are not 
reported. L. W.] 

July 13, 1911. 
Miss Farrell, speaking to her observation class, said: 
We will limit the discussion to-day to manual training 
and physical training. The observation thus far has 
been of these two subjects. 

We are doing intensively here what in New York 
City is done over an extended period of time. Take 
Mrs. Pfeiffer's class in New York for instance, — 

(138) 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 139 

the work which she would do with her fifteen children 
there throughout the year, she will do here in six weeks. 
The difference is that here we work with the children 
all the time. There, a class at the bench would be 
under direct supervision, while the other children would 
have occupation work of one kind or another. They 
would work at their own tasks and the teacher would 
inspect them when the lesson was over. While it is 
impossible in six weeks to do that kind of work, one 
teacher doing it all, it is possible for us, with three 
teachers, to show you the whole year's work in six weeks. 

Q. What physical exercises do you consider most 
beneficial for children who are inclined to be round- 
shouldered? 

Miss Farrell answered: The setting up exercises, 
and sitting up straight, with hands behind back, also 
hanging from a bar, any stretching exercises. 

Q. What would you do for a case of infantile hemi- 
plegia, where one leg is shorter than the other? 

Miss Farrell said: The matter of corrective exercises 
ought to be under the direction of the orthopedic 
specialist. In New York City we have found that 
orthopedic specialists are willing and glad to see a child 
and prescribe corrective exercises. The thing to do is 
to get advice immediately from an orthopedic specialist, 
the advice of some man who knows about anatomy 
and physiology. 



140 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Q. Would you have as long a period for your 
manual training as you had this afternoon? In my 
class they lose interest so soon, they fatigue so quickly. 
Here you kept them at manual work for nearly an 
hour. 

A. If all the children were doing the same thing, 
it would be impossible to keep them going for three- 
quarters of an hour. One boy would want to plane 
this, and another saw to this line. You couldn't get 
around to all. Start the little people on something 
they can control, then your time is for the children who 
have a harder problem. Let them work as long as 
they can. That's the trouble with these children, — 
their span of attention is so short. Our whole work 
must aim at building a longer and a longer span. If 
I can interest this child in working for ten minutes 
on something that previously he would not work on 
for five minutes, I can see he is improving. If you 
go into a class room and see everybody interested and 
everybody working, you know that it is right, funda- 
mentally. 

Study the material, study the kind of work you give. 
What are the interests upon which that work is based? 
Upon what instincts in the child do you base your work? 
If you get these two things right, the fatigue point is 
going to be pushed farther and farther along, and 
that's what we want to do. 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 141 

Q. How large a group would you take for manual 
work? 

A. The largest group here is six. That is large 
enough. 

If I may take up the physical exercises now, — the 
physical training embraces three great types of work. 
For all the children we can use one type of work, 
based upon the principle of imitation. We can also 
take all of the children through work based on command 
and response. I need not work out here the psycho- 
logical reasons for these groupings. A large group, as 
large as an individual teacher can keep track of, can 
be taken together for these two types of physical 
training. When you come to the third type, the one 
which is the great thing for work with backward chil- 
dren, the corrective work, the group must be small. 
We have small groups here, only two or three children 
going through the same exercises. All the work is 
definite and specially suited to the needs of the par- 
ticular child. The question was raised before most of 
you came in, What corrective exercises do you consider 
best for these children? Unfortunately I am not an 
orthopedic surgeon, but I do depend upon and have 

the co-operation in my own town of great orthopedic 

surgeons. I recommend this same co-operation to you. 

Find some one who is willing and glad to tell you the 

orthopedic defects of each particular child, what he 



142 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

needs, how to correct bad posture, how to lift one 
shoulder if there is lack of symmetry, how to correct 
a bad walk. I could give you some exercises for all these 
purposes, but it would be in exactly the same way as 
you would go out and buy a powder to cure a headache. 
That is all wrong. You want to get at the root of the 
thing. Get the co-operation of the best orthopedic 
surgeon in your town. Go with the child and be present 
at the examination, when the child is put on the table 
and gone over. In that way you will build up a body 
of knowledge which will help you to carry out his 
directions. It would be unwise for you to take any 
corrective exercises which you see here, and apply them 
without further definite information. Take, for 
example, a boy with one leg longer than the other. 
That condition may arise in different ways. You 
want to know the cause of it, quite as much as how 
to cure it. You are not to take any work of that kind 
except as an indicator. Find some one who knows 
more about it than you do, and take his directions. 

These two types, the imitative, and the command- 
and-response work, form part of any good work with 
backward children. For these you may have as large 
a group as you can possibly attend to. With the third 
type you must have a small group in order that the 
work may be individual. 

There are some rather important questions which 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 143 

have not been asked yet: Is there any reason for 
the apportionment of manual training among the 
different children? Is there any reason for giving 
this boy basketry, and this boy wood-working? The 
answers to these questions are to be learned from a 
study of the child. Think what muscle groups are 
first used in life. That is the guiding principle of man- 
ual work. If you remember when you yourselves began 
to sew, when your little niece began to take hold of 
a needle, what came before that, — that will give you 
something to start with. How does the baby learn to 
use his muscles? When does a boy begin to want to 
use a saw or a hammer? He wasn't always interested 
in doing that, but why not? Those things are related 
to definite physiological and psychological facts. 
They concern the development of the great muscle 
groups which a child uses when he begins to develop 
his back and shoulders, — which he uses when he reaches 
out and kicks out, — those facts determine what kind 
of manual training is needed for backward children. 

If it is true, as some people are now saying, that Dr. 
Stanley Hall was wrong when he put forth the theory 
of fundamental and accessory muscles, no matter. 
Let us hold to the principle which I have just stated, 
and follow the natural course of development of the 
child. Poorly co-ordinated children, — children who 
have no control over the finer muscles of their hands, — 



144 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

must have the big thing to do with the big material. 
I sometimes visit classes where children are working 
with the sloyd knife and a thin slip of board. If you 
know the history and theory of the development of 
sloyd in Sweden, you know the place which it holds 
in that educational system. It comes at the top, not 
at the bottom of the school course. When we take the 
sloyd knife and thin lumber and give the children chip 
carving, we are giving them things which the Swedes 
know to be very difficult, a material difficult to handle, 
and a difficult tool to manipulate. The boy grows dis- 
couraged and throws his work away. Give the same 
boy a big saw and a heavy piece of lumber and he will 
go to work and get something out of it. It will have 
a very definite kind of educational value for him. 
Give him heavy materials, big tools, and ask him only 
for coarse, crude, unfinished work. 

These statements contain the theory upon which 
the manual training work you have seen here is based. 
We give the poorly co-ordinated children the big 
things to do in a big way, and we give the better 
co-ordinated children the finer things. 

Those of you who were present when the children 
formed on the floor for the physical training exercises 
last Thursday, have seen every exercise but one. We 
did steal a march on you once, but we didn't get any- 
thing done. Now what is the secret of the improve- 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 145 

ment which is apparent in the formation on the floor? 
What was the trouble a week ago? on last Friday? 
The children did not know where to stand. They could 
not follow each other. Miss Walsh said, "Stand 
here," but they couldn't stand there. They didn't 
know where "here" was or how to get "here". With 
those seventeen children there was something inside 
their heads that was wrong. They weren't bad, they 
wanted to do, but they couldn't. When Miss Walsh 
said to little Morgan, "You stand on this spot," he 
hadn't the remotest idea how to get on this spot and 
stay there. They all meant to do it, but they didn't 
know how. Look at these ropes. They are made of 
plaited raffia. The first time they were used, the four 
children in front held this. They could understand 
that this was a blue line and all the blue people were 
here. This one we called red; all the red people held 
this rope. And the same way with the white one. 
They were all in their places, and those were the 
things which got them to do it. It was of no use to say 
to these children. Now you are a leader and you stand 
here, and you follow him, — they simply couldn't do it, 
until we gave them the rope to hold. 

Dr. Holmes remarked: We can't show you what 
Miss Farrell has done with these children. We can't 
pin up her work with them on the screen. Her work 
has gone home, inside the children. 



146 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Miss Farrell resumed, in explanation of this idea: 
Can you see what these ropes did for the children? 
They made the thing concrete. The child had some- 
thing in his hand. He felt it, he could see the color, 
and he knew that other children had hold of the same 
thing. That is what made him get in line. Perhaps 
a week from to-night you will see that the children 
are able to form on the floor without these ropes. 
That is growth, and it is something that you cannot 
put up on the screen. It is something inside the 
children, and their ability has been organized to that 
extent. To-night it is dependent upon this, but a 
week from to-night it may not be dependent upon this. 

Manual training is only something to hang on to. 
We don't want manual training for these children; 
we want co-ordination. If you know anything better 
than manual training to develop co-ordination, you 
ought to use it. I would put every thing the child 
makes on the screen, I would let it be his own work, 
I would put it up for my own encouragement. It is 
perfectly marvelous from day to day to see the im- 
provement in the children. And I think we discount 
the feeling that we know the children better. Get 
some of the work that each child does at the begin- 
ning of the school term. Keep it and look at it six 
months hence. If it is better, yours is the credit, 
and if it is worse, yours in all probability is the fault. 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 147 

It will be a measure of your ability to do this kind of 
teaching. How long would I keep his first work? 
I would keep it until he graduates. 

We in New York have another habit. At the end 
of the school year we mount the work of each child 
in a chart. Not all the work, and not carefully selected 
work. If you save a paper every Friday, or every 
Monday, you will have work enough to show progress. 
Think how proud the boy himself will be! It is the 
best kind of inspiration for the child, for the teacher, 
and for the parent. Because progress is slow, parents 
are impatient, but if you can "show them the goods" 
they will be satisfied. 

I wouldn't let a child dawdle all day over a block 
like this one on the screen. I would call it finished, 
just as Mrs. Pfeiffer called Russell's block finished. 
Abraham is like Russell in age and in power to talk, 
but he is a little better in co-ordination. In a given 
time Abe can do this, and Russell can do that. It 
is a measure for each child. Even though the work 
is not finished, it shows the ability of these boys to 
do work in a given time, and that you need for your 
own encouragement as the year progresses. But 
there are some interesting questions about the manual 
training work which seem to be getting away from us. 

Q. To-day I noticed little Samuel, who only yester- 
day learned how to hold a saw, come forward and 



148 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

correct another child who was having trouble with 
it. This shows so much improvement, and such a good 
spirit, — don't you think so? 

A. That is not as good as it seems, if it was Samuel 
who did the correcting. That is Samuel's propensity, 
— he wants to correct everybody. 

Q. I observed some of the boys using the file. 
Why was that? 

Mrs. Pfeiffer answered: I wouldn't use the file 
at all for a normal child. I only used it for the motion. 
You see, the big planes had gone back, and the small 
ones hadn't come yet, and one of the boys asked if he 
mightn't use the file. The motion, back and forth, is 
about the same, so I let them use it. Speaking in 
terms of physical co-ordination, the file is just as 
good for the boy of poor co-ordination as the plane. 

Miss Farrell resumed: Every boy loves to pound 
nails. Give him a hammer and a nail and a piece of 
wood, and you have done it all. There is the thing 
he is interested in, and to be allowed to do it! What 
joy! Keep that in mind. You want to appeal to the 
thing which is natural for that child. Find out what 
the child ought to be doing at his age, what are the 
things he should be interested in. I have seen boys 
in the city who collected literally bushels of rubbish. 
But think what it was they were doing. They were 
collecting! Wherever they were, in school and out of 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 149 

school, they were collecting. They were bringing 
in handles of broken cups, and old wheels, and pieces 
of straw. They weren't interested in postage stamps, 
for they never got a letter, but they were interested 
in a bright, shiny piece of brass that they could rub 
on their cheek. And it all led somewhere. It was a 
long time leading, but it led somewhere. Under the 
teacher's direction these boys made a tray,' with 
divisions, and put things of rubber here, and iron here, 
and so on. Think of the body of knowledge they were 
accumulating about these things! There was some- 
thing fundamental in that teacher's mind when she 
said, "Let's collect." 

Q. Do you think Robert is incorrigible? 

A. Has he given any evidence of incorrigibility? 

Q. Well, he seems to get into trouble. 

A. Then is he incorrigible, or highly suggestible? 

Q. I think he is of the type which is likely to be- 
come incorrigible. He seems to be hard to control. 

A. The conditions here were not quite normal 
to-day. The children were delayed in returning from 
the rest room. Like any other boy, Robert was find- 
ing something to do by teasing the rest. I have never 
seen an incorrigible boy. I question whether there 
is such a thing as an incorrigible boy. There are 
stupid teachers who dub these children incorrigible, 
but I believe if we were teachers in truth as well as 



150 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

in word of mouth, we would not find so many incorrig- 
ible. If we stop to consider the influence of digestion, 
for only one thing, upon goodness and badness, we 
would give them castor oil occasionally, and the 
incorrigibility would disappear. I hope that you 
twenty women will go out and believe one thing, — 
that young life at bottom is good, and bad boys are 
made by teachers who are bad and seldom in any 
other way. I know you have to face the questions of 
home influence, of slum environment, and bad food, 
but there are ways to cope with all these. There 
are charity organization societies, church clubs and 
associations, and a thousand other ways to save a boy, 
like little Russell, who may not be worth the trouble, 
but whom we are going to save. 

Q. Do you consider Robert mentally defective? 

A. His co-ordination is not as good as it should 
be; he has this speech defect. I believe if his speech 
defect could be overcome, that his awakening would 
be marvelous. With decent expression, — vocal expres- 
sion, — he might wake up tremendously. I am thinking 
of Robert's general intelligence, of his ability to express 
himself in written English. He can read very well. 
He can write sentences like, "I live in Germantown," 
"My house has twelve rooms in it." This seems 
elementary, but he can do it correctly. 

I would suggest that in your observation work. 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 151 

you keep these two ideas in mind: Upon what in the 
child's life, upon what instinct in the child is this 
work based? First, what is the appeal, and secondly, 
why this appeal? Express in psychological terms the 
meaning of what you see. While it will be nice to go 
away from here knowing a good many different things 
to do, yet I think that people enthusiastic enough to 
come to Philadelphia for a summer school ought to 
go back as missionaries and know the psychological 
meaning of the whole thing. This work, if interpreted 
in every case in terms of psychology as you learn 
it, will give you a foundation upon which to work 
out your own methods. No one person knows all 
there is to know. No one person knows all the ways 
of doing things. While what you see here will help 
you and point out next year's path, the thing to do 
is to build on a sure foundation, upon an accurate 
knowledge of how the mind develops. In training 
a child's mind you want to know what to train towards, 
and don't go against that. Use all there is there, 
and use it to the best advantage, and some day the 
result will come. 

(After the meeting was adjourned, Miss Farrell 
told how she had managed one "incorrigible" boy. 
He had a passion for breaking things, and a desire 
to throw stones. She had the janitor bring up a large 
pane of glass, and some stones. She set the glass up 



152 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

against the wall, and told the boy to throw stones 
at it as much as he liked. In this way she gratified 
his natural instinct to throw and to destroy some- 
thing, and did it in a way which diverted this instinct 
into a harmless channel. Having broken the glass, 
he was ready to be interested in something else.) 

Friday, July I4, 1911. 

Dr. Holmes and Miss Farrell called a meeting of 
the students who had volunteered to assist in serving 
the children's luncheon, for the purpose of explaining 
the principles which underlie this part of the training. 

Dr. Holmes spoke first, and said in substance: 
The reason we are serving luncheon to the children 
is in the first place to build them up physically, to 
feed their bodies, including their brains. In the second 
place, we are teaching them to set a table, to eat from 
plates, and to handle a knife and fork and spoon. 
These are concrete things. Some children can be taught 
only these things. Some feeble-minded children can 
be taught to set a table and do other domestic work, 
when they can't be taught anything else, can't be 
taught reading or writing or arithmetic. But we are 
not primarily concerned with training girls for domestic 
service. That is a fine thing in itself, but it is not 
our object. We are training their minds, developing 
their intellects by teaching them to use their hands 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 153 

and to obey commands. Some children have to be 
taught this way first, and later on, when they have 
begun to learn, they can be taught other things, like 
reading and writing and arithmetic. 

It is a fundamental principle of pedagogy, to proceed 
from the concrete to the abstract, but most teachers 
never grasp this idea. They jump at once to the 
abstract. Now a normal child will stand a good deal 
of bad teaching, and may learn in spite of it. There 
is nothing essentially different between the kind of 
pedagogy which a backward child needs and the kind 
a normal child needs. What is good for the backward 
child is good for the normal child. Proceed from the 
concrete to the abstract. When we are teaching these 
children table manners, to handle a spoon properly, 
to say " Yes, ma'am, " and "No, ma'am, " and Please," 
we are teaching them something concrete, and are 
developing them intellectually just as when we give 
them manual training or teach them to march in line 
by holding on to a rope. 

There is too much abstraction in the ordinary school 
room. There is nothing in the world so abstract as 
the figure one. If you teachers will spend your leisure 
time of evenings for the next six months in twinging 
your minds to bear on the question of what is abstract 
and what is concrete, and how to proceed from the 
concrete to the abstract, then you will be able to begin 



154 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

good teaching. You will not have to go to magazines 
to find out what other teachers are doing and copy 
that. You will be able to study your children and 
do work with them which other people will discover 
is new and original, and they will come to you to learn 
how you do it. 

Have I expressed your idea, Miss Farrell? 

Miss Farrell rose and said, Yes, I think you have 
said it exactly, Professor Holmes. I think you will 
have to think it over, many and many dark winter 
nights, before you know that what Professor Holmes 
says is the point. I am always fond of going back to 
a little baby. If you have a baby in your home, or 
in the neighborhood, a baby will teach you more than 
you can learn in any other way. A baby develops 
in a certain way, and in that way these children must 
develop. 

I know that if I can see the direct application 
of what I am doing and what I am going to do, I can 
make something out of that. I want to show you what 
can be done in your own classes in feeding the children. 
I am going to ask Mrs. Bryant, who has charge of 
providing the luncheon, to tell you about it. 

Mrs. Bryant said: This class is unusually well 
endowed. We can spend fifteen cents on each child 
every day. This is about five times what you can 
usually spend. Three cents is the cost of the most 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 155 

elaborate luncheon which is being served in the public 
schools. For three cents they are able to give a bowl 
of soup, or heavy broth of some kind, and two slices 
of bread and butter. Sometimes they have to leave 
out the butter, according to the price. The broth 
is as a rule not made of meat, but of peas or beans with 
rice in it. Peas and beans are the only vegetables 
that contain a sufficient amount of tissue-building 
stuff. Meat extracts are chiefly used for flavoring, 
but they cannot form tissue and bone, and they are 
expensive. The extractives contain the tonic elements 
and the taste. 

Another kind of food is bread and milk. Here in 
Philadelphia they can give bread and milk, or shredded 
wheat with milk, a sufficient quantity to make a good 
lunch, for three cents. The most elaborate lunch on 
record for three cents is that given in the Bradford 
schools, in England. There they get a piece of meat- 
pie, with a dish of peas, bread, and sometimes a dessert 
— rolypoly, or cake, or buns. The only reason they 
can do it for three cents is that they have equipment 
for serving ten thousand meals a day. In New York 
the lunches cost three or four cents, including the cost 
of the woman to wash up, but not including the cost 
of supervision. 

If you are going to give a lunch every day, the cheap- 
est and best thing would be shredded wheat and milk. 



156 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

It would not require preparation, but would give some- 
thing for the children to do, to break up the shredded 
wheat. It would not be too hard on the children. 
Or you can give four or five graham crackers and 
three-fourths of a glass of milk for three cents. I am 
speaking now of the wholesale prices, of course. You 
could give them three-fourths of a glass of milk and a 
whole shredded wheat biscuit for three cents. 

Other combinations are boiled rice with stewed fruit 
poured over it. For a penny you can give a cup of 
rice with stewed fruit. They do that in the Philadel- 
phia schools, where they have penny lunches. 

The schools in Boston and some here give a light 
lunch at 10 o'clock. This is not a substitute for a home 
meal, but simply a "snack". A quarter of a cup of 
milk and two crackers for one cent are given in 
Boston. 

Of course you have to look out for national prejudices 
and race prejudices. In one district in New York they 
had to have a meat dish. The children there would 
not touch macaroni or anything made with oil. They 
could not, however, serve it on Friday. 

You will not find anjrthing made with beans or peas 
here, because they are not easily digested. And we 
don't use tomatoes for children. Grown people 
like them, but children seldom do. They contain very 
little but water, some salts, and flavoring. Macaroni 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 157 

with chopped or grated cheese is about as cheap as 
anjrthing you can get. 

Here we are trying to give a lunch which is equal 
to one-half of what these children need for a whole 
day. They are getting enough bread, and enough 
meat of some kind, with butter. Some of the children 
are getting more than that because some of them get 
more to eat at home than others. I don't think many 
of them are very well fed. The bulk of the food here 
is milk, bread, ice-cream, and butter. To-day they had 
a lettuce sandwich with mayonnaise. That has as 
high a food value as a plate of stew, on account of the 
oil in the mayonnaise, and the extra butter. Yester- 
day they had creamed beef and baked potato. 
Creamed beef with the sauce costs the restaurant people 
four cents. The two slices of bread and butter cost 
two cents. The milk costs two or two and one-half 
cents; the ice-cream costs two and one-half cents, 
and that makes up the ten cents. 

Miss Farrell resumed control of the session, saying: 
Every phase of the work you see here can be done in 
your own town with just the conditions that prevail 
there, and with very little cost. Shall I tell you how 
we started it in New York? We have domestic science, 
(cooking) rooms in the city schools. It was suggested, 
"Why not make a whole tableful of macaroni for this 
class? They are Italians. Let the girls cook the 



158 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

macaroni and then we will eat it." This was the first 
school luncheon in New York City. That is one way 
to begin. 

Now when you try to start school lunches in your 
home town, you are going to come up against a stone 
wall. You are "taking away parent?,l responsibility." 
But try this way, — say to your class, "Bring a piece 
of bread to-morrow," and if your experience is like 
mine, they won't bring the bread. They won't have 
it. These people live literally from hand to mouth. 
When they want bread for supper they have to wait 
until they send to the corner store for it. It will be 
a real obligation for many of these mothers to have 
a slice of bread ready for the boy to take to school. 
But keep at it. It is worth while. It is real teaching. 

The school lunches now are given under the aus- 
pices of the New York School Lunch Committee. 
They are quite different, and attack the problem from 
quite a different angle. They have found that there 
must be a committee to look after the feeding of these 
children, and to observe the results. 

The forces of the school should all work toward the 
same end. In Chicago the boys in a big school spent 
several months making fireless cookers. The lunch 
for to-morrow is being cooked in those fireless cookers 
to-day. 

The work which you have to do next concerns the 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 159 

service of the luncheon. The hardest thing you have 
to do is to keep your hands off, just sit down and see 
that the children do it. Don't let it get on your nerve. 
Never mind if it takes two hours, let them do it them- 
selves. We are here to see it done, and if it takes until 
to-morrow for Flora to get the table square, why, we 
will wait until to-morrow. Next week, from quarter 
of twelve to quarter past twelve, the first student will 
attend; the second person will come on from one until 
half past one to look after the clearing up. You will 
get experience that is valuable, and you won't be giv- 
ing too much time to it. You cannot learn it all in a 
day. The mistakes that the children make will help 
you in other lines of work. Don't be beguiled into 
putting your hands on them. Don't let it get on your 
nerve, because the truest thing anybody ever said is, 
"We learn to do by doing." You can't keep people 
from making their own mistakes. 

July 20, 1911. 

As the class assembled for the second formal round 
table Miss Farell said : I think the value of these meet- 
ings lies entirely in the amount of discussion which 
they open up. Now you have seen during the past 
week two of the most interesting pieces of work that 
we do in special classes, and unless that work has 
suggested hundreds of questions, I feel that we have 



160 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

failed. Perhaps you think, as one teacher thought who 
was here last week, that she was expected to criticise 
what she saw. Remember, there are two kinds of 
criticism, destructive and constructive. We want both 
kinds of criticism from you. The thought that you 
don't know how to use the saw yourself need not 
interfere at all with your asking questions. You are 
not interested and I am not interested now in the 
technical use of the saw. We are only interested in 
why we give a saw to a child. If you say over and 
over again, "Why did you do that, why didn't you 
do this?" you are getting something out of your obser- 
vation work. That's the kind of thing that is going 
to make it worth while to you. 

Consider the sense training we have been doing. 
When you get back to your different towns and try 
to put in this sense training, you will be swamped, — 
absolutely, literally swamped. You want to know why 
we do this, why we do that, and what we do first. Is 
there any difference between the work you offer to 
this child, and to the other one, and why do you offer 
it? 

I have a series of questions here which I will keep 
until later. Now what has been suggested to you, or 
what question has come into your mind as the result 
of any one thing you have seen this week? 

Q. Do you have this sense training every day? 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 161 

A. Not every day. Now I will ask you, why do we 
have lessons in sense training? 

Another student answered, To train the attention. 

A. Yes, but we might do that in other ways. Why 
do we give sense training? To train the senses! If 
you know Seguin's book, you know that in every 
feebleminded child there is some potentiality of nor- 
mality. The difference is a difference of degree and 
not of kind. The child has it in him to grow, to blos- 
som. A normal child blossoms. Whether or not Dr. 
Seguin was right, doesn't concern us. What does 
concern us is that these children are living in the 
world. They are interested in certain affairs at home. 
They are, or should be, familiar with certain odors, 
with certain sights and sounds and touch impres- 
sions. The teacher of a backward child must deter- 
mine just what the content of his little brain is. How 
many years a child may eat sugar, and never use the 
word sweet! How many years these children have 
used vinegar at home, and never used the word sour! 
They may know the word vinegar, but not the word 
sour. And the same with bitter. Now we want the 
discrimination, and we want the word that name the 
discrimination. That, in a few words, is the reason 
for sense training, and the length of time it continues 
depends entirely upon the child. 

In this work you will begin with the strikingly dif- 



162 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

ferent sensations. You will not give him gradations of 
sweetness, for instance, or gradations of the same tone. 
Give him touch mth motion, and let him get the idea 
of coarseness. In this work you want the opportunities 
for large discriminations, particularly when the work 
is elementary. 

Q. Take Russell, what senses are you training now? 

A. All of them, to some extent, particularly touch, 
and taste, and smell. I would not ever, with any 
child, train one sense at the expense of the others. 
Russell will have work in all lines. You have seen him 
in physical training. You have seen him in manual 
training. You have seen him in corrective gymnastics. 
You have seen him in beginning reading, which com- 
bines most of these things. Russell is getting everything 
in this work that any other child gets. Here again 
it is a difference of degree and not of kind in the matter 
of training. 

When I tell you that out of the first small class for 
backward children in the city of New York have 
grown the problem of immigration and hundreds of 
other problems, — that out of the question of decent 
work for special classes for backward children, have 
grown classes for crippled children, for the blind, for 
the deaf, for the anaemic, for the tubercular, — you 
will see what an immensely important matter it is. 
Think what a relief it would be for you, if you could 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 163 

take all the ansBmic children out of your class and put 
them into one place and give them work suited to 
them. The whole question is one of close classification, 
to get all the children in the right place. 

Instead of making the child fit the conditions, we 
must make conditions fit him. Instead of making the 
child fit the school, we must make the school fit the 
child. Then we won't have truants. We won't have 
juvenile criminals. We will have fewer loafers, and 
tramps, and criminals, and bad citizens in the com- 
munity. If you will go back to your home town and 
make the community see that it is worth while to take 
these things into account, that it will save them money 
to provide for special classes, then they will listen to 
you. 

Q. I regret so much that I often have to neglect 
my best pupils, while giving time to the duller ones. 
Does this harm them? 

A. I hardly think it would. It means loss of oppor- 
tunity, but no positive injury. The bright boy will 
find expression. There is no trick in teaching a bright 
child. They learn in spite of us. The schools do 
nothing for them. No, in the case of your children, 
there would be no pathological retardation. There 
would be, however, loss of opportunity. 

In New York we have special classes for bright chil- 
dren,, where they will do three terms' work in two terms, 



164 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

giving them a chance to go ahead as fast as they can 
go. That again is coming as a result of these special 
classes. The argument which will reach school boards 
and men of affairs is that of economy, "See what you 
are losing. These are the children who are going to 
be the leaders of the next generation, and they are 
being neglected because I have to give my time to the 
others." 

Q. Does Miss Walsh have any particular method 
of teaching articulation, except infinite patience? 

A. Yes. In the beginning the mechanism of voice 
is the particular thing aimed for. 

Q. Is that the same thing as phonetics? 

A. Not in the way phonetics are generally taught. 
That is not of much use. You will have to consider 
what Dr. Stanley Hall calls tongue gymnastics". You 
have to show the children how to make the sounds. 
Flora cannot say I; she cannot say lo, she says wo. 
All the patience in the world wouldn't do any good un- 
less Flora is enabled to put her tongue back of the 
teeth to say lo. The best way to get the articulation 
work is to visit the schools for the deaf, not where they 
use the manual alphabet, but where they teach by the 
oral method. There are several books that will help 
you. I never hesitate to recommend Miss Sullivan's 
book on Helen Keller, — see the infinite patience, and 
the thousand and one ways she found to present the 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 165 

same fact. I would also read Howe's book on Laura 
Bridgeman, to get some idea of his point of view. 

You want to study first, the anatomy and physiology 
of the vocal organs. You will have to know the mech- 
anism of voice. Visit schools for deaf-mutes, and this 
will be enough and more than enough to work on next 
year. There is, of course, a sequence in the way tones 
are taken up. You will find this set forth in several 
books. 

We will take up the question of articulation, however, 
after the observation in that subject. I am a little sur- 
prised that you have not spoken of the reading. What 
do you think of the reading for that little group? I 
don't care so much, — Miss Walsh doesn't care so much 
about the work, but we want to know whether you 
would do it, and why. We are only showing you how 
it would be done if we made such a mistake as to try 
to teach those children to read. Now it is wrong, abso- 
lutely wrong, genetically wrong, to teach those children 
to read, with the exception of Henry, and Susan, and 
perhaps Abraham. We would leave out Oswald and 
Russell, and Clara, and Flora, these four children whom 
we would not teach to read now, perhaps never. I 
don't know where you are ever going to get with it. 
It is a question of value. I believe that with any 
child it is wrong to teach reading unless you can give 
him a love for reading, a desire to read Now with 



166 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Russell that can never be done. He isn't going to live 
with books. 

Personally, I think we have an entirely wrong notion 
of education. I think that what you saw here this 
afternoon, — the children laughing, and plajdng, and 
marching to music, — that is education. They are hav- 
ing a good time, and they are learning to live in the 
world. Those children ought to be doing big things in 
a big way. They ought to be getting sense impres- 
sions every day, and in order to get sense impressions 
they must not have too fine discriminations presented 
to them; they ought not to be required to use the 
finer muscles of the eyes and the fingers. Think of the 
age man was when he began to wrestle with the printed 
page ! I don't know about your ancestors, but I can look 
back to mine, — strong, able-bodied men, who worked 
hard with their hands. It is only in very recent years 
that we have got all tied up in this matter of reading 
and writing and number, and whether or not we will 
achieve a product that is better than our forefathers, 
is a question. 

With these little people, handicapped in mind and 
body, I think it is wrong to ask them to manipulate 
those organs and muscles which have developed late 
in the history of human kind. To use those muscles 
of the eye which discriminate the hen-tracks" on 
the printed page, is to make a fine and difficult 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 167 

discrimination. But what about the parents? The 
parents want their children to be taught to read and 
write. They don't like to think that there is anything 
wrong with their children, — that they are different 
from other children in any way. Well, that is true on 
superficial acquaintance. But when you get the 
mother's confidence, she will tell you that James was 
four years old before he began to walk, and six years 
old before he began to talk. You see then that he 
is five years behind his age. If the parents see that 
you know more about the child than they do, if you can 
interpret the child's history in terms of the kind of 
school work he wants, they will trust you. If you 
say, "But he is such an interesting boy. He doesn't 
do things as other boys do. What kind of a baby was 
he?" the mother will have to tell you. Not that she 
wants to tell all his shortcomings, but she will tell you. 
Give them all the books they want, all they can carry 
home, but at the same time, my school work would be 
the work I knew that the child needed. The school 
teaching of the future is going to be as much specialized 
and as much based upon anatomy and physiology as 
medicine is to-day. We shall have to know anatomy, 
and physiology, and psychology. The reason people 
here in this laboratory get the information is because 
the parents have confidence in them, because they 
say right away, "This man is a psychologist. He 



168 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

knows." You have to get the same thing in the atti- 
tude of the parents toward you, and then you can do as 
you hke with them. 

Don't misunderstand me. I pick out of all the 
children here, those four that Miss Walsh has, and say, 
" I wouldn't teach them to read." I would give Russell 
a saw or a shovel, and let him go out and do things. 
The rest I would teach to read. I would let every 
child have every bit of training he can get. 

Q. Can you recommend some books on gymnastics? 

A. Dr. Mackenzie has a book on gymnastics, and 
Dr. Gulick, and Miss Bancroft, of New York, has several 
books. 

Q. How long would you keep up exercises like walk- 
ing through the ladder? Would you keep it up after 
the children can do it? 

A Yes. There is fun in it. It is one of the simplest 
exercises for gait. It makes a child pick up his feet. 

Q. What would you do if you were not successful 
in sense training? 

A. If a child doesn't discriminate well in the sense 
training, there is only one thing to do, and that is to 
make the difference greater and greater. 

I would recommend everybody here to take a course 
in laboratory psychology. Get the children to make 
these discriminations, sweet, sour, and bitter, and get 
them to name them. Keep right at it, — to-morrow 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 169 

and the next day and the next day. Usually if you ask, 
"Did you ever taste it before? Do you ever have to 
take medicine? How does it taste?" the child will say 
"bitter". The substance to-day was bitter, — it 
happened to be quinine. Of course there comes a time 
when, if after a good fair chance he doesn't say "bitter," 
you will have to tell him, for he simply doesn't know. 

Q. What things would you use for sense training? 

A. I would use the simple things around him in the 
home. I would not take strange things. He might 
know odors of flowers, or he might not. But he would 
know the odor of coffee, and kerosene, and probably 
peppermint. And so with the familiar sights and 
sounds. 

In the sense training there is a sequence. I am 
surprised that nobody has remarked a sequence in the 
exercises that we have had this week. To-morrow we 
will take vision. There is a sequence in the way the 
senses develop, and in all sense training you must 
follow that sequence. The sense that develops first 
is more primitive, has more back of it, than the ones 
which develop later, as sight and hearing. 

After all is said and done, we must train these 
children in the natural way, and we fail only when 
we go about it in the artificial way, the way men have 
arranged that children shall be taught. They have 
said, We must teach all children six years old to read, 



170 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

all children twelve years old to speak French, and so 
on. The only thing for you to do is to cut loose and 
bring all the science you have at your command to 
bear on this problem in a scientific way. There is a 
natural way in which children develop, and you want 
to find it, and follow that way. 

Q. How do you account for the change in Morgan? 

A. For one thing he knows us better, and for another 
thing we know him better, and that's all there is to it. 
We are all very fond of him. Morgan has a good deal 
of sense. You can't flatter him. When he showed me 
his basket he said, "It isn't very good, is it?" I said, 
"It's pretty good." He said, "Naw, it isn't any good 
at all." Mrs. Pfeiffer went down town yesterday to 
get reed heavy enough so that he could not make a 
mistake. That basket is a very good picture of Morgan. 
Now with the heavier material, plus the experience of 
making the first basket, he will do better. 

Q. What is the value of breathing exercises before 
oral reading? 

A. It is a matter of voice. Have you noticed how 
many monotones we have in this class? To do away 
with these monotones we are giving the children voice 
placing. You have heard Mrs. Pfeiffer bring them from 
middle C to the octave. We can't do very much in 
six weeks, but we can show you how the thing is to be 
done. You notice I said " oral reading". Oral reading 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 171 

is quite a different thing from reading. Silent reading 
is a very good thing for these children. But oral read- 
ing is reading plus expression. 

The production of voice is the chief thing to be con- 
sidered in oral reading. You must have voice produc- 
tion under control, and that means that the breathing 
must be under control. It must be from the diaphragm. 
That is why we give the children breathing exercises. 
I wouldn't let them hold the breath too long. It is 
likely to strain the heart. You see again, you can't 
know too much physiology in this work. 

Really, whatever psychologists say, we school 
teachers are at the top. We are the apex of the 
whole thing, because we must have all these sciences 
at our command before we can train these minds in 
the right way. 

July 27, 1911. 

Miss Farrell opened her round table conference by 
saying: Now what are the questions to-day relating to 
the work with clay? You have seen clay work, as well 
as articulation exercises. 

Q. I am sorry I have not been able to see any of the 
clay. How do you begin? 

A. We begin with the plaque, smoothing the clay 
out jflat. Next we trace the outline of a leaf on the 
plaque. This gives precision of movement, and it 



178 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

demands concentration. When the clay was offered 
the children framed up a plaque. Then they put a leaf 
on it which they had picked up on the grass, and went 
around it with a tooth pick. The thing was to put 
the tooth pick down just at the edge of the leaf. That 
is concrete. That exercise was given for the sake of the 
precision in movement that was required of the child. 
If you will look at the work on the table you will see 
in very many cases the child needed this training in 
precision. 

You will remember, of course, that we have given 
this work for you. When you see us working with 
clay in the flat one day and in the round the next, and 
the next day yet another type of work, I want you to 
remember that it is for you^ to show you the sequence, 
not because it is best for the child. If we considered 
only the child's good, we would spend a great deal more 
time on each step. In your own classes you will take 
a longer time to do the plaque work. You cannot do 
it in a day. Nor would you be satisfied with one 
lesson in the round. You would have many lessons. 
The work shown this week should extend over a whole 
term, consisting of five months. Our children must have 
many lessons with the clay which require precision and 
delicacy of touch. 

Q. Could the mixing up of the clay be done by the 
teacher? 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 173 

A. Yes, it is only because we have so many men 
about here that we have it done for us. In New York 
the janitors do it. 

Q. What particular kind of clay do you use? 

A. Clay flour. It can be bought at Milton Bradley's. 
Never use clay the second time; this for hygienic 
reasons. Throw everything away that is left over. 
There is now, for rich people to buy, a prepared clay, 
which is the nicest to use. It costs twenty-five cents a 
pound. 

Q. Do you mean Plasticine? 

A. No, I mean prepared clay. Plasticine never 
hardens, and so cannot be preserved. The child likes 
to do clay modelling, but it's just the doing of it that 
he likes, — it is good fun. In these little paper-weights 
the leaf has been colored green and the whole thing 
shellacked over to make it more permanent. 

I think that of all the materials for manual work clay 
offers the greatest opportunity. When Russell could 
not saw to a line, he could model a ball. He could not 
make a beaker this afternoon, but he could make, as 
he said, a lot of potatoes. I like the clay very much 
for what it does for the children. They have to get a 
certain precision in their touch, and a certain delicacy 
in their fingers to model. And how near it is to the 
interests of the young child! Notice a child in the 
country, sitting beside the road, making mud-pies. 



174 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

These children of ours are really very young, no matter 
how long they have lived. 

Dr. Holmes remarked: Clay is good for another 
reason. There is something final in sawing to a line, 
but clay gives the child another chance, and another, 
and another. 

Miss Farrell agreed, and continued: You have seen 
the children working at the sand tray, packing the sand 
into little dishes and turning it out. Some of the 
children could not even do that at first. They packed 
it in too loosely, but they could try again and again. 
If you don't mind having sand on the floor, the sand 
tray is a very good thing. 

Q. Isn't it remarkable, how well these children 
model? 

A. Yes, they do very well, particularly in the Indian 
pottery. The thing which interests me very much in 
teaching this work is the principle of correlation, 
letting one thing grow out of another and everything 
out of the natural interests of the child. You will find 
that the children can make very presentable Indian 
bowls, color them and put Indian designs on them 
See that cup ! It is quite as good as one that you would 
bring all the way from Arizona and prize very much. 
Unfortunately, we can't find a kiln in New York City 
where they bake this kind of clay. The thing is to have 
a kiln in the school, where you can bake the pottery. 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 175 

That adds greatly to the interest of the boys in their 
work. At Montclair they have such a kiln. They are 
expensive, they have to be built in, and somebody has 
to run them. The heat is supplied by kerosene, which 
drops in, a drop at a time, and somebody has to watch 
it. It is dangerous, as well as expensive. 

We have not yet taken up the coil work in clay. That 
is a type of work we are going to begin to-morrow. 
This bowl was a perfectly flat piece, and the idea was to 
work it up in this fashion. Some of them made a ball 
and tried to hollow it out, but the idea was to work it 
up from a flat piece. Sculpture of any kind is not taking 
out; it is putting on. A man modelling a portrait 
head does not take out the shadows, he simply builds 
up the lights. We don't want the children to dig the 
clay out, but to get the result by evening up and 
modelling the thing. This type of work calls for a kind 
of co-ordination and a kind of imagination that the 
other doesn't. Most of the children did make a ball 
first, but that was not the intention at all in these 
hollow round objects. 

The children should have the opportunity to do free 
work in the clay. To-day they made these things for 
the play house. This cup isn't half bad. You could 
go to a museum and rave for ten minutes over an 
Indian cup not a bit better than that. This carrot 
will be colored with water colors and shellacked. 



176 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Little Abraham made it- He hasn't had much of an 
opportunity in anjrthing, but he is a very smart httle 
boy. He is startUng Dr. Twitmyer and everybody 
else. They would not have believed that he had it in 
him. Abraham has skill in modelling, which is unusual 
for a Russian. I thought that Giovanni and his 
brother, who is visiting to-day, would do this work 
very well because they are Italians, but they didn't. 
In New York the Italian children do this work very 
well. But all Vanni could make was a ball, and his 
brother could not make even that. I never saw children 
use clay and be as clean about it as these children have 
been. You won't get anythng like the same result. 

To-day there were two classes of objects given. 
These, which would group themselves rather closely, 
are the round ones. The higher grade children were 
given the elliptical objects, and the less capable children, 
the round. These things the children knew, and they 
were easy to obtain. That was the only purpose in 
selecting them. 

Q. Do you ever make type forms? 

A. I never do that. That is a fallacy. There was 
a time when people thought we were crazy to give 
children dolls' houses to make, for it is well known that 
children of that age can't plane or saw to a line. But 
we don't care about the line. What we are interested 
in is the child. The same shiftmg of the vieAvpoint 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 177 

is to be seen all through the schools. We have passed 
from technique to the child who says he "wants to make 
something next." We don't care how many mistakes 
he makes. A gentleman this morning said he was glad 
to see a teacher who would stand for such crude work 
as that. That is the highest kind of compliment. 
You have gone to school exhibits and seen work which 
you know couldn't have been done by the children. 
Everything you see here is crude enough to convince 
you that the child did it. 

After all, we learn to do by doing, and we do not learn 
in any other way. When you give children type forms 
to make in clay, you give them something formal and 
far removed from life. If you really wanted to give 
them a prism, it would be better to say, "Let's make 
a chimney." You would get all the good of modelling a 
prism, and you would have the interest of the children. 
Take the child's interest as the point of departure. 
Let him do the thing he is interested in. 

Q. Would you only take two children at a time for 
articulation, or more, or how many? 

A. If you had twenty, and they all needed the same 
work you could have a large group. You have to group 
according to the defects to be corrected. For example, 
there is no reason in the world why you could not group 
children who have trouble with the initial letters 
together, and give exercises on the initials. Then if 



178 BACKWABD CHILDREN. 

you had the good luck to have all the rest of the children 
with defects at the other end of the word, you could 
group them. The ideal thing is individual work, for 
what we are trying to do in articulation is to uproot 
bad habits and plant good ones. I would give them 
all phonic work, but the formal articulation work I 
would give only to the children who need it. 

Q. If you had children whom you could not teach 
to read, and they spoke indistinctly, would you give 
them articulation? 

A. Yes, I would give every child who is going to 
be in school, — every child with a speech defect, — I 
would give him a chance to get good articulation. 
Now where the defect is inside his head, and you can't 
get at it, I wouldn't spend time on that. Russell, 
of course, is an institutional case. Flora is a middle 
grade imbecile. Miss Walsh would not bother with 
them. I suppose Flora will say wo instead of lo to the 
end of her life. You can't do anything with them. 

Q. One of the boys, I notice, could not tell red or 
green. Do you think any amount of training could 
bring that about? 

A. Oh, yes. He could learn that because he is 
not color blind. That boy is really a hopeful case for a 
special class. He is really worth while. The matter of 
not telling color is not so important, if he can match it. 
In the color work there are two things to keep in mind, — 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 179 

can he match color? can he name it? A child who can 
match color is going to get the thing right. 

Q. Would you give as much time to training all 
the senses, the sense of sight as of touch, for example? 

A. I can't say how much time I would give to any 
line of training. It would all depend on the child. 

Q. Don't we use the sense of sight more in getting 
our knowledge of the external world? 

A. Some persons do. After they come to a certain 
point, all normal persons do. But when you remember 
what the psychologists tell us, that all knowledge is 
the building up of the sense of touch, that without 
touch we would never have a sense of form, that vision 
alone never determines form, we see that this holds 
an idea for teachers of defective children. If they can't 
get knowledge through the eye, then they must get 
it through the sense of touch. I think if all teachers 
knew more about how the race has developed up to 
the point where it now stands, we would know more 
about teaching. Think of the thousands of years we 
did not depend on sight. Think of the Indian, who 
can tell by laying his ear to the ground whether a horse 
or a man is coming, miles away. Indeed, our whole 
human brain is the result of the development of the 
hand. This morning I was saying that the exercise 
on the ladder is not for the purpose of making the child 
draw himself up; we give the exercise to afford the 



180 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

child an opportunity to oppose his fingers. Those of 
you who think in biological terms will remember that 
a great epoch in the history of man was marked when 
our simian ancestors opposed the thumb to the fingers 
and so were able to grasp. Why does a little baby tip 
over so many glasses of milk? Because he has not 
learned to grasp. Notice the first young child you see, — 
that's the thing to hold to. In this exercise we want 
to cultivate the power of grasp. It is just as funda- 
mental as the sense of touch, and it goes so far into 
the making of the human brain that we ought never 
to neglect it. I don't know whether Miss Walsh, when 
she was getting the children to keep their places by 
holding on to the ropes, thought of this, but it came 
into my mind that there is the same grasp, the oppos- 
ing of the thumb and the fingers again. 

Q. Is there any good book about handicrafts? 

A. A good book is Miss Dopp's "The Place of 
Industry in Education." 

A student remarked, referring to the fundamental 
nature of the sense of touch: I know a blind woman, 
who has been blind since she was a baby, who can 
fry eggs without burning them, and go about her 
pantry and keep everything in order, and she says 
she does it by the sense of feeling. 

Miss Farrell continued : If you read Dr. Drummond's 
book on "The Ascent of Man," you will begin to appre- 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 181 

ciate the countless generations we have been coming 
up from the worm to the point where we are now, and 
the changes that have been wrought since the day of 
the worm until we are as well organized as we are now. 
Add to your list John Fiske's book for suggestions on 
the same line. Those of you who have not read Dar- 
win's great book on the "Origin of Species," read it 
with this idea in mind, and Huxley's books, — any of 
the great books on evolution. You don't have to 
believe all that is in them, but you want to get their 
point of view. The sense of grasp is one thing to be 
traced out, hearing is another, taste and smell are 
others. Then you have the thing right in the palm of 
your hand. That's what you must do for these children. 
You must give them the opportunities. Most children 
have the opportunities for development in themselves, 
but these children have to have the opportunities made 
for them. 

Think how old the human race was before it began 
to wrestle with little black and white specks on paper! 
Think when printing was invented. So far as we know, 
men in the fourteenth century were as highly developed 
as we are now, yet the great mass of the people were 
not so well educated. They did not have access to 
books. It was not until after the invention of printing 
that the common people had any use for the finer muscles 
of the eye. What are four hundred years? They are 



182 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

as yesterday, and we teachers are forgetting that when 
we ask children to read books. We are asking them to 
use the finest co-ordinations and those most recently 
acquired in the history of man. That may be well 
enough for normally organized children, not for ours, — 
they cannot do things so well, and they can't finish 
them neatly. They have to use the large, crude move- 
ments. They have to do the things that primitive man 
did, and do them in a primitive way. We can't ask 
them to use the finer co-ordinations of more highly 
developed people. That is the great reason for throw- 
ing the school books out of the window. You can't 
always do it. We can't do it in New York. But I 
believe it is the thing to do. Give children the things 
to do which are fundamental to the whole human race. 
Give them the opportunity for touching, for smelling 
a variety of things, for tasting a variety of things. 
When it comes to sight, give them color, light and dark- 
ness. Give them a chance to see the big things of color, 
and don't bring them to the finer co-ordinations of using 
a text-book until you have taught them through these 
grosser co-ordinations hundreds and hundreds of times. 

Q. Is abdominal breathing the breathing for chil- 
dren? 

Mrs. Pfeiffer answered: To get the diaphragmatic 
breathing is what we are after, but you can do that 
better if the abdominal muscles are strengthened. 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 183 

Miss Farrell continued: You know, if you have 
studied vocal music, the first thing the teacher does is 
to put your breathing right. The whole matter of 
diaphragmatic breathing is to get better control. It 
isn't for the sake of the tone that these exercises are 
given. It is for control and concentration. 

Q. How many pupils ought a teacher to have? 

A. In New York City we have fifteen pupils to a 
class, but I never met a teacher who, if asked whether 
she could take another child, would not say, "I would 
rather have him than let him wait. He will be easier 
to train now than he will be after he has been waiting 
two or three years for a place." This work is something 
more than missionary work, — it is preventing the neces- 
sity for missionary work. It is saving. Ours is a work 
of formation rather than reformation. When you save 
somebody from an impending danger you are doing 
something more worth while than when you fix him up 
after he has been through the fire. The special class 
teacher must have the type of mind which will lead her to 
say, "I can do more for this boy than any other teacher 
in this school, and I am going to have him," and so she 
has sixteen, eighteen, even twenty children. But she 
ought not to have more than fifteen in the class. 

Q. Can we get help about articulation out of books 
for teachers of deaf-mutes? Is that too specialized? 

A. Not at all. Any school for the deaf, where they 



184 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

teach the oral method, is the best place for you to 
learn articulation work. Then there are the publica- 
tions of the Volta Bureau of Washington, Bell's book 
on "Visible Speech," and many others which you will 
find by consulting the catalogue of any large library. 

Q. Is there any reason for Miss Walsh's putting the 
children's hands under their jaw when they say certain 
sounds? 

A. To get the vibration, — the child gets the idea 
better if he feels the vibration. 

Q. Is there any particular order to follow? 

A. The natural order is the order. Go back to the 
young child again. Think of the little children you 
know, the words they said first. Any good dictionary 
will give you information of this sort. Greenough's 
Latin Grammer gives the sequence of labials, dentals, 
palatals, etc. The child usually says Mama first. 
Notice whether that same child will put the m sound at 
the end of the word, and when he does it. Child psy- 
chology is the thing. The little book, "First Three 
Years of Childhood," and the book by Preyer, "The 
Infant Mind," and "The Senses and the Will," and 
Professor Baldwin's account of his own child, and 
Professor Dearborn's recently published monograph on 
the development of speech in his own child, — these are 
all good books for you. Look in any library under 
Child Psychology, or Child Linguistics, and you will 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 185 

find many books that will help you. But the thing that 
will help most is to think of the children you have 
known, and arrange the words that the child said first 
as you remember them. Analyse them into initial, 
final, and intermediary sounds. 

Q. What is to be done with the hopeless cases? Is 
the teacher to keep them in her class indefinitely? 

A. One cannot decide very often that a case really 
is hopeless until the child has had every chance, until 
every effort has been made to train him. One should 
not judge too hastily, or too superficially. The special 
class teacher must be a scientist to the extent of sus- 
pending her judgment. She must say, This throws 
light on the question, but it is not final. While there 
is life there is hope. We cannot grow a second arm, 
but in the developing mind, who can tell what is going 
to happen? We know that much is possible in the 
rebirth of adolescence; there is much to hope for at 
that time. 

There is going to be a great change when this work 
spreads throughout the country, and you are the people 
who are going to spread it. We want you to get the 
point of view of special class work. Here are twenty 
women who are having an opinion formed on the 
subject of backward children, and you will go back to 
your community, and you will help to mould public 
opinion there. The problem will present itself in some 



186 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

way like this. You will have some children in your 
class who don't belong there. They will stay year after 
year, and learn little. Someone will say, What are you 
going to do with them? You will have to take a step 
forward and say. Put them in institutions. Then the 
people will say, But that costs money, and these chil- 
dren could earn a living; let that boy go to work, 
he could sweep the streets, and let this girl go to work 
as a servant. You will answer, That's all very true, 
but he's going to get married, and she's going to get 
married, and here I am teaching school, and I am going 
to have their children to teach. And it will all be gone 
over again, and those children will marry and have 
children. The community is spending its money to 
educate them, and they are getting no good of it. It is 
spending money on them in prisons, and almshouses, 
and hospitals, — more and more money. Then your 
friend will say. Let us put them in institutions. And you 
will find that the institutions are full and have long 
waiting lists. They will have to build more institutions. 
And even when the children do at last get into an insti- 
tution, . an ignorant or greedy parent can come and 
get them out and put them to work. After a while 
the people will not leave it for a feebleminded father or 
mother to say, "No, he shan't go into an institution. I 
can take care of my own boy." As sure as the sun sets 
to-night, the day is not far distant when in New York 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 187 

state we will have a commission to pass upon our men- 
tally defective children and send them to an institution, 
■just as we have a commission to pass upon criminals 
and small-pox cases, and other persons dangerous to 
the public. And here I will be a prophet. I believe 
that within ten years in New York state we will have 
definite compulsory care for children unable to get 
along in school. A great scheme has been worked out 
to provide for almost any contingency which may arise 
while custodial care is being brought about. 

Now if each of you will go home and teach and show 
the wastefulness of feeblemindedness, make your school 
boards and your community see how much money is 
wasted by letting these feebleminded persons run at 
large and have children, — that is what will impress 
them, the extravagance of it. I want you to get the 
right point of view. These particular children do not 
matter so much, if we can use them as laboratory 
material to demonstrate the problem, to show the 
facts. Remember that we have 150,000 to 300,000 
idiots in this country, and less than 15,000 in institu- 
tions. Where are the rest of them? About the country- 
side, marrying and having children. Come back to 
the question of cost; the state takes care of them 
anyway. The almshouses are full. The jails are full. 
The lunatic asylums are full. That could all have 
been wiped out if the teachers had been intelligent 



188 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

enough. The day will come when I will not have a job 
and you ought not have a job. We ought to work 
ourselves out of our jobs, if we are good for anything. 
If we could lock up all the feebleminded in New York 
state to-night, in thirty years we would have very few 
feebleminded persons living. We would take care that 
the next generation would have very few feebleminded 
persons in it. There would be a few sporadic cases, 
of course. If you will remember that you are to work 
yourselves out of a job, you will be doing a great work. 
You will be following out the doctrines of the great bio- 
logists, and preparing the way for the future perfect 
man and perfect woman. 

Augusts, 1911. 

Are there any questions to clear up about the work 
thus far? I shall appreciate very much the expres- 
sion of your own opinion about anything you have 
seen, and perhaps by telling what you do think it will 
give me a chance to make some things clear to you 
that must otherwise pass. 

Q. I have boys in school who are very active and 
troublesome, and I find that they change sometimes 
when their actions are not noticed, — I find that they 
come around best when they are not noticed. Is it 
better to leave them alone, or would you take decided 
steps to have them obey your commands at once? 



HOUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 189 

A. There are two ways of looking at that. Open 
rebellion in the school room must be met. If a boy 
openly refuses, there is a condition which must be 
dealt with at once. Personally, I believe that the 
fewer commands given the fewer opportunities are 
offered for the disobedience of the child, and the better 
it is for the school work and for the teacher. I think 
there is no question about what is best for the children, 
— ^that is the school, of course. There is never any 
doubt in my own mind on that point. The schools 
are made for the children, and unless the school is 
the place where the child can improve, there is some- 
thing the matter with the school. I believe almost 
in peace at any price. I would keep the children in 
school at all costs to myself and anyone else. I have 
in mind a condition which might arise, which you 
would have to meet for the sake of the other children. 
The wise teacher has few such conditions, very few. 
But if one does come up, it has to be met, that's all. 
After all, why are we in school? We are there for 
the sake of the children, and whatever makes the 
school count more for the children, that is what we 
must do. 

Q. In playing store, did Miss Walsh expect the 
children to add 14 and 9, or did she expect them to 
give her 14 pennies and then 9 pennies? 

Miss Walsh answered: I expected them to do both, 



190 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

to give me the change for each article, and then count 
up the whole cost. 

Miss Farrell added : Of course, there is a time when 
the child counts up his purchases, and the child who 
keeps the store gives him the change, say from 25 
cents, and this gives a chance for subtraction as well 
as addition. It doesn't so much matter how they do it. 
It is simpler for the children to count out 9 pennies 
and 14 pennies, I think Miss Walsh's idea is to work 
toward the true condition in stores. The child must 
be able to count 9 and 14 and 25, and find out if he 
gets the right change. 

Q. You don't attempt any tone exercises in articu- 
lation? 

A. Yes, in conjunction with breath control and 
the tongue gymnastics. 

Now if there is nothing else, I want to take up the 
question of what you shall teach these children. I 
want to indicate for you first the thing that you know 
quite as well as I do, and that is that the children, — 
our children here, — need to get the same thing from 
a thousand different points of view, if they can. In 
that respect your children at home are no different. 
The same condition exists for the children as exists 
for us. We can hear of the Mona Lisa in the gallery 
at Paris for a year and a day, and still we do not know 
the Mona Lisa until we have seen the original. That 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 191 

holds true of everything, no matter how small or 
how large. We must get all the information we can, 
from as many points of view as we possibly can, in 
order to know completely the thing we are studying. 
In order to give the children an opportunity to know 
all they can about any given thing, it seems wise to 
correlate all the different activities of the children. 

When you begin to correlate you get into a subject 
which has been much abused. Correlations have been 
made, and after a time they are seen to be not real 
correlations, but seeming correlations. For the sake 
of correlation, some teachers have been willing to 
strain a point and correlate everything. It is not of 
such correlation that I speak. I mean only the natural 
correlations. Only those things which are nearly 
related can be correlated. And the question arises, 
what are those things? I want it understood that 
I am going to consider the question from the point 
of view of the teacher of subnormal children. 

If you are going to correlate, it becomes necessary 
to determine certain centers of interest. A center 
of interest, to be of very much use, must be big enough 
to allow work to go on over a considerable period of 
time. I need not indicate for you here the psycho- 
logical value of such a scheme. It is again the problem 
of attention, the problem of interest, of spreading 
out and pushing forward further from the center, 



19^ BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

the span of attention, and the span of interest. We 
want to create in the children, not the constantly 
changing interests in a number of things; we want 
to hold their interest in one thing. Whatever the 
center of interest you decide upon, it must have in it- 
self the qualities which will command the children's 
attention and hold their interest for some time. I 
don't want to say what are the centers of interest 
to be determined. I think it would be wrong to do so. 
Here again you have to consider the children you 
teach, their direct inheritance, and their indirect 
inheritance, their racial instincts and leanings, their 
surroundings, and the occupations of their parents. 
All that must come into it. 

Through all this, which seems utilitarian and 
materialistic in a very real way, the teacher must 
have in her mind an all-enveloping desire to make 
these children the highest type of men or women they 
are capable of becoming. That desire must have an 
indirect or unconscious influence. You are not going 
to say to the children, to these little Russians "Be 
Americans," to these little Italians, "Be Americans." 
You are not going to say that in so many words, but 
your whole manner of dealing with them is to be 
illuminated with the intense desire on your part to 
make of these little rascals American men and women. 
You don't define that, of course, to the children. 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 193 

You select your center of interest, and then like a 
great cover you weave around it your desire to make 
them the best type of men or woman. That will do 
more than the center of interest to develop the right 
spirit in the children. It seems a little odd, perhaps, to 
emphasize the cover that you put around the thing, 
before the thing itself is known, but after all it is this 
imdefined desire which is going to color your work and 
make it worth while. There are many factors which 
enter into the effect of unconscious tone. If you know 
Bishop Huntington's book, you will know that the things 
the teacher teaches are not half so great or weighty 
as what the teacher is. This is an old and hackneyed 
saying, but Bishop Huntington has put it in such a way 
that it will stick to you as long as you live. If the 
thing which dominates your consciousness is your 
desire to make of these children something more than 
workers in this workaday world, you are going to suc- 
ceed. But do not state to the children that they are 
going to be idealists. Do not give them work which 
has been evolved in some philosophic brain, but give 
them the work that is here and now, and lead them 
step by step, until some day they come into the inheri- 
tance of the race. 

Like so many other things, the really vital spark 
in teaching is something you can't define or hand on 
from one to another. It is something we have in us. 



194 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

We have it, or we have it not, and if we have it not, 
we are not teachers. 

If you have formed some idea of this great cover which 
is going to dominate your whole work with the children, 
we can go on to the more material fact of the center of 
interest. In New York City last year we worked 
twelve centers of interest, and I am going to tell you 
frankly the trouble with working twelve centers of 
interest, and I am going to advise you not to do it. 
We did it last year. In September and October we 
took the harvest, and Columbus Day. Columbus 
Day with us is a legal holiday, and directly interests all 
school people because it is a holiday, and a large number 
of school children who are Italians and very proud of 
Columbus, naturally. In November we took up the 
story of the Indians and the first Thanksgiving. 
In December we taught the story of Christmas, and 
in Jewish sections of the city we took the festival of the 
Seven Lights, which is a Jewish festival and emble- 
matic of the Christian Christmas. In January we 
took the children of the North, and in February we had 
a patriotic month, with Washington's and Lincoln's 
birthdays. From March on until the end of the year 
we studied germination and farm life, beginning with 
germination in March; in April, Easter, the awaken- 
ing of spring, the higher thought of germination; and 
in May, early farming. In June we carried on the study 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 195 

of agricultural life, and picked up the loose ends for the 
year. 

This sounds better than it is. Right away an 
experienced teacher will say it is too fragmentary, 
and that is the whole trouble with it. It was no trouble 
the first year we did it, because it had not been done on 
an extensive scale, and it was new to teachers and chil- 
dren, and everybody was interested in it. The second 
year, fortunately or unfortunately, the children remem- 
bered a great deal that had been done before. It lacked 
the first bright interest, and to a great extent it was 
useless. That was not true in all classes, but was 
proportionately true as the teacher was efficient. 
The thing to keep in mind is your own class and how 
long you can carry the center of interest. 

Anybody who has watched the work here this summer 
has some idea of the abundance of work offered by the 
play house. We are going to finish it off in a big way 
only. There is many weeks' work on the play house. 
In the hands of somebody who wants to work hard 
enough it offers opportunity for a whole year's work. 
That, of course, is provided you can keep your interest 
in it, and provided the children keep theirs. There are 
little tricks of holding attention. Mrs. Pfeiffer has 
given a shining example of one. The children had 
worked at this house until it was impossible to see very 
much change in it, although something was done 



196 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

every day. Then Mrs. Pfeiffer had the whole lot 
painted. It looks like a new thing. The interest has 
been revived, and the children are willing to go on 
with them because they look more like houses. There 
is the trick of not allowing the children to work at 
all the rooms of the house, not to get the whole thing 
mixed up, but to work on one room. Get the kitchen 
done, and then go to the next room. Define the prob- 
lems you are going to let the children work on. Those 
little tricks of keeping up the interest will suggest 
themselves to you, as they do to any practical teacher. 

Q. Does each child plan his own house? 

A. Yes, and there are many things about that series 
of houses that are intensely interesting. Take these 
little ones. The children all started with boxes of 
about the same height. There wasn't three inches 
difference in height. Now look at them. I remember 
eeeing Flora; she had drawn the line down to get the 
slant for the roof, and when she came to saw it she 
sawed toward the front of the house; but after many 
trials and tribulations she got it right. In the hands 
of most teachers, again, it would have meant bringing 
up another box for Robert, but that one is worth more, 
as showing what Robert does, than a perfect house, 
started the third or fourth time. It is better for him. 
He can see without anybody's calling attention to it 
that it is different from the others. He may not 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 197 

be able to explain it in words, but he can't help 
seeing it. 

When you look at these houses, you know they are 
the work of the children. Most teachers wouldn't 
want to stand for some of the things on these houses. 
It is only a real teacher who will stand for them. 
Look at those windows. Think of the arithmetic which 
is involved in planning the windows and measuring 
them off. And the houses look like the children who 
made them. That one belongs to David. David is a 
normal child, probably. It shows in the work he does. 
Look at his fine large windows. Now look at Wilbur's, 
what little square holes he has. Whether Wilbur has 
ever noticed that windows are generally longer than they 
are wide, is a question. But look at David's again. 
David has windows which are large enough to give light 
and air to the house. Think of the arithmetic! That 
is what would appeal to the teacher. The inside also 
the children work at. They decide whether they want 
two rooms or four rooms, a two story house or a four 
story house. Two boys chose to make a house long, 
this way. As you look into these matters, a great 
many questions will spring up in your minds. 

Q. How did they begin them? 

Mrs. Pfeiffer answered: They brought their own 
boxes to begin with. Our morning talk had been about 
their homes, what they were made of, how many rooms 



198 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

they had, and so on. Then we talked about the house 
they would like to make, how many rooms it should 
have, and what these rooms should be, and where they 
should be arranged. Almost everybody decided that 
the kitchen ought to be the largest room, and you see 
in many cases it is the largest room. After the rooms 
were decided on and the partitions built, they planned 
the windows and doors. Sometimes they did not 
work out as planned, and sometines they worked out 
better. George has stained his floor and put a molding 
around for the baseboard. Ernest's is very much more 
nicely done. Some of his rooms are now papered, and 
all his floors are stained. 

Miss Farrell resumed: Perhaps if I say how the 
painting was done, it will indicate how the house was 
planned. The children were asked to notice how many 
kinds of paint were used on one building. On most 
houses you will find two. The body of the house is 
one color, and the windows, doors, and moldings are 
another color. That brought out the interest of the 
children in their own homes. I think there have been 
a few mistakes with regard to painting the moldings 
lighter than the body of the house. 

It is a matter for suggestion and direction. The 
ideal play house, it seems to me, for the school children 
to make would be a duplicate of their own home. 
We have in one class-room in New York City a piece 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 199 

of communal work done with pasteboard boxes, repre- 
senting a large tenement in which the children live, a 
massive construction, put together with paper fasteners. 
The idea they got from it was a great, long, box-shaped 
affair, with floors close together. Other children who 
lived better, with wider halls and larger rooms, had 
a different idea to work out. Here again, as in every- 
thing else, begin with the child, let the work be his. 

Another thing is true of New York City: we have 
houses all on one floor. When New York children make 
a play house, they make the rooms all on one floor. 
That is their idea of a home. I remember some chil- 
dren who were sent to the country one summer, and the 
greatest discovery they made was that some people 
lived in a house where there were two pairs of stairs. 
You went up, and there was a place where people 
slept, and you went up again, and there was an attic 
with all kinds of fascinating things stored in it. Now 
these children had no idea that anybody lived that way 
and had such a home. That knowledge grew directly 
out of the center of interest in the home. 

Here you have more problems in arithmetic than you 
can use. You will see to-morrow how Mrs. Pfeiffer 
has led up to square measure (and maybe to cubic 
measure by multiplying the three dimensions). For 
real purposes of training, the children cannot get an 
idea of cubic measure, but you will see to-morrow how 



200 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

the lesson in square measure could readily be carried 
on into cubic measure. There are many other ideas for 
arithmetic which could be worked out in connection 
with the play house. 

I want to ask your attention to the amount of litera- 
ture and language work which is opened up when you 
study the play house. We have had two trips to 
museums and will have another, to study the work 
of other peoples, particularly the basketry and pottery 
which we have taken up. More than a year's work is 
at hand when you begin to correlate the reading, 
language, and literature of the subject with the motor 
training offered in the play house. You have seen 
something of the interest in reading which comes out 
of the play house. Our children have been reading 
about children of faraway lands, what kinds of houses 
they live in. This morning in the language work we 
had an imaginative story. We have one child who is 
said to be very imaginative and able to make up stories, 
but several of the children did quite as well as she did. 
They told such stories as this: "My house is a shanty. 
It is down by the river. An old bachelor lives in my 
house. He loves fishing, and likes to go out in a boat." 

Another child said: "Mr. and Mrs. Carter live in 
my house. My house will be in the country near a 
farmer's field." This was not suggested. These 
stories were the free exercise of the children's own 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 201 

imagination. Another one said : * ' Willie B . lives in my 
house. He rides horseback all over the country. My 
mother likes me to visit Willie B." Five children were 
working at the blackboard and we have five individual 
sets of sentences. 

Q. Can the children spell all the words in stories 
like that? 

A. It is not necessary to know how to spell every 
word. The thing that is necessary is to have something 
to say, and to make an effort at saying it. These 
children had that. 

Q. But wouldn't you teach these children to spell? 

A. While I have said that I did not think it neces- 
sary for children to have formal spelling lessons, that 
is because the time we have with the children is so 
short that we felt we wanted to keep the facts upper- 
most in their consciousness. As a consequence of this 
we have given them books in which they have written 
words relating to the center of interest, the play house, 
my home, and so on, — the words they had trouble in 
spelling, — and these books will measure up well with 
the work of other children. Each child doesn't have 
the same words, — that isn't necessary. Robert never 
can spell is, and always has to be shown how to do that. 
But George knows how to spell it, and so he doesn't 
need to have it in his book. The books are almost 
as individual as the children. They choose the name- 



202 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

words most often, father, mother, kitchen. They do 
not choose the action words so often. 

I said in the beginning that I did not believe in a 
strained correlation. For that reason we have not 
hesitated to sing about the carpenter, about the bee- 
hive, about the cloudy day. We do not have enough 
songs of the right kind for the children to sing all the 
time about the house. 

I am going to recommend to you to decide upon a 
center of interest, and make it last for as long a time 
as it is possible or wise for you to work upon it, and 
then make such natural correlations, — such obvious 
correlations, — as will meet the needs and desires of the 
children. Do not strain after the artificial. It is 
not necessary for them to work with buying or selling, 
or measuring, or any work connected with the house all 
the time. But you want correlation of the right kind. 
The teacher need make only the natural correlations, 
and she will have variety in her work. But when you 
strain, as some great schools of pedagogy have strained, 
for correlation, you are going to have a dead level which 
is hard to make interesting at all times. 

I am sorry I can't tell you of a center of interest to 
work out next year. I can only say that in many of 
the schools in New York City we will begin in Septem- 
ber a center of interest which will extend over a longer 
period than one month. Except where teachers want 



ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS. 203 

it very much, we will not have the short periods of one 
month, changing the whole train of things and starting 
afresh the next month. The thing to do is to find a 
center of interest which will carry the children along 
for a longer period of time. When you have found that, 
you have found the work which is easiest done. 

Try to arouse in the hearts of the children the right 
feeling toward father and mother, and an affection for 
their home. It must not be given out as a dogma to be 
believed. The thing you must strive for is feeling, 
that is all that will count with little children. There 
are a dozen types of work which I might indicate, 
but they will suggest themselves to you as you go on. 
If you will take this as a scheme, — put a circle in the 
center of your page, and name your interest, whatever 
it is, — perhaps it is "my house". Then from that draw 
lines showing the great bodies of knowledge you are 
going to teach. Perhaps you are going to let ethnology 
grow out of this center of interest. You are going to 
teach geography, manual training, art work, physical 
training. Arrange all the things you are going to do, 
around there. See what you think of it. It is almost 
like a map of the heavens ! With this center I can teach 
the relation of father and mother and children. I 
can teach what constitutes a home. In art work I 
can teach textiles and combinations of color, and the 
decorations of the home. Go over it again and again 



204 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

and limit, and boil it down, down, down. The things 
that will suggest themselves first are the true correla- 
tions; those are the obvious facts which you want to 
relate in the minds of the children. 

There is a very real justification for correlating on the 
basis of the unity of the mental life. That again is for 
your own background. That is to be the soil out of 
which your correlating for the child is to arise. I want 
to recommend to you earnestly this idea of correlation 
for children who are backward, retarded, who have 
little chance to make their own correlations without the 
help of some one else. One way to do it is to present 
the day's work in a related fashion. And I want to 
recommend to you that you think of this as a unity. 
The whole thing is one. Leibnitz says that the great- 
est thing in the world, the most all-encompassing 
abstraction, is the idea of unity. Now if it is as dif- 
ficult as that for Leibnitz, it must be very difficult for 
us. But it is the thing to remember, — to unify, to 
correlate, to interweave the different factors in the life 
of these children. 



THE CHILDREN'S WORK. 

PLATES 
XXI-XXXIL 



1 These illustrations exhibit great differences in the quantity 
and quality of the manual work accomplished by the several 
children. Twelve children are shown, each with his own work 
and each proud of his accomplishment. To obtain a complete 
understanding of what the work accomplished meant for 
each child, would require a very long report of day-to-day 
progress. This progress students in the observation class 
were able to watch, and their attention was drawn to the 
significance of particular portions of the work for the immed- 
iate developmental needs of the individual child. The boy 
shown in Plate XXX came to the work interested in nothing. 
The chief task with him was to stimulate his interest in any 
kind of performance, no matter what. In general, emphasis 
was placed upon an increase in the power to accomplish rather 



ii BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

than in the completion of perfected work. Thus " Twenty- 
four's " completed work is poor in quality and small 
in quantity compared with "Twenty-one," but the former 
received actually more instruction and made relatively 
more progress measured in terms of accomplishment than did 
the latter. In Plate XXVIII the house as finished is smaller 
than that produced by the boy in Plate XXI. The former 
started out to make a larger house, but made many mistakes 
and was compelled to overcome his own mistakes instead of 
being allowed to start anew with fresh material. 

The children were told to bring boxes from home, for the 
purpose of encouraging spontaneity and responsibility on the 
part of the children, and also to suggest to teachers that inex- 
pensive material will suffice for the purposes of instruction. 
Ten children brought boxes. Those who did not were given 
other occupations. 

In addition to the houses the pictures show specimens of 
basket work, soldiers' hats, flags and shields, illustrating some 
of the story work of the class, drawings in pencil, colored 
crayons, and water colors, and furniture for the houses. The 
central idea of the manual work was the building of the home. 
This selection was felt to be psychologically justified and also- 
educationally important, combining as it did the natural 
interest of the child with the opportunity to train and direct 
his powers of observation to the objects of the ordinary en- 
vironment, giving also an opportunity to suggest a wealth of 
hygienic and social knowledge. 





PLATES XXI AND XXII. 





PLATES XXIII AND XXIV 





PLATES XXV AND XXVI. 




PLATES XXVII AND XXVIII. 





PLATES XXIX AND XXX.. 





PLATES XXXI AND XXXII. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Nutrition and Growth, 
by louise stevens bryant. 

The factors of nutrition are air, water, food, exercise 
and rest. We were able to control all of these factors 
from nine to four on each school day. It was summer, 
so there was no trouble in keeping the windows open, 
and the children were out of doors a considerable por- 
tion of the time. The water supply was carefully 
regulated, the children drinking spring water at 
certain intervals under supervision. A lunch, as hearty 
as the weather permitted, was served at twelve. 
Exercise was assured in manual occupations, in the 
formal gymnastics with wands, Indian clubs, dumb- 
bells, marching, ladder climbing and so forth; and 
the boys, in addition to the gymnasium work, had swim- 
ming and baseball. The children had a complete rest 
for an hour each day after lunch, and when they did 
not sleep still remained quite relaxed either in the open 
air or in a darkened room. 

The balance of the twenty-four hours it was impos- 
sible to control directly except in the case of the six 
children under the immediate care of the Clinic in 
boarding homes. An attempt was made, however, to 

(205) 



206 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Susan C. I. 

Filled out by Miss Black. HOME EATING 



Went to bed at 

Got up at 

Slept (well; badly) 

Ate for supper: 
What? How much? 

Soup 


MONDAY 

8 
6.15 
well 

6 slices 

banana 
3 glasses 

3 glasses 
6 shces 

2 
3 S. W. Bis. 

1 


TITESDAY 
8 

6.10 
well 

6 slices 

on bread 
and jelly 

Schweitzer 
cheese 

Rarebit of 
potatoes, 
tomatoes, 
eggs 
crullers 
3^ glasses 

3 glasses 

1 

on roll 

banana 

summer 

bologna 
2 S. W. Bis. 

2 


WEDNESDAY 
8 

6.20 
well 


Bread 

Butter 


6 slices, 1 
roU 
on roll 


Meat 




Vegetables 

Dessert 




Milk 


3 glasses 


Ate for breakfast: 
What? How much? 

Milk 


3| glasses 


Bread 




RoUs 


1, with jelly 


Butter 


on roll 


Fruit 




Eggs 




Meat 




Cereal 


2 S. W. Bis. 


Bowels moved : 
How many times? 


2 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 

Aug. 7-Aug. 13. 
AND SLEEPING. 



2or 



THUBSDAY 


FEIDAY 


SATtJEDAY 


SUNDAY 


8 

6.20 
well 


8 

6.20 
well 


8.45 

6.15 
well 


7.45 

7 
well 

(Dinner) 


6 slices 


7 slices 


5 slices 


4 slices i 


on bread 
lima beans 


with bread and 
jelly 

tomatoes 


with bread and 
jeUy 


on bread j 

Pot pie of beef 
and pork 


3 glasses 


3 glasses 


plums 
2J glasses 


stewed apples 


3J glasses 
1 slice 


3 glasses 
2 slices 


3i glasses 
4 plain, 1 toast 


i 
3 glasses 
6 slices 


on bread 


on bread 

plums 
2 


on bread 
cantaloupe 


with bread 
and jelly 


3 S. W. Bis. 


3 S. W. Bis. 


2 S. W. Bis. 


i 


1 


1 


2 


2 



208 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

George S. II. 



Filled out by Miss Blundin 



HOME EATING 





MONDAY 


TUESDAT 


"WEDNESDAY 


Went to bed at 


8 


8 


8 


Got up at 


7 


7.30 


8 


Slept (well; badly) 


well 


well 


well 


Ate for supper 








What? I ow much? 








Soup 


vegetable 






Bread 


2 slices 
yes 

fried toma- 


3 slices 


2 slices 


Butter 


yes 


Meat 


egg 
stewed 


boiled ham 


Vegetables 


cabbage. 




toes, corn. 


tomatoes, 


potatoes. 




potatoes 


potatoes, 

boiled 

rice 


beets 


Dessert 


huckleberries 
1 glass 


1 glass 




Milk 


1 glass 


Ate for breakfast: 








What? How much? 


heartily 






Milk 


1 glass 


1 glass 


1 glass 


Bread 


2 slices 
yes 


2 slices 
yes 


3 slices 


RoUs 




Butter 


ves 


Fruit 


apples 


banana and 
huckleberries 








Eees 






1 eee 


Meat 


cereal 


oat meal 




Cereal 


cereal 


Bowels moved : 




How many times? 


twice 


once 


twice 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 

July 31-Aug. 7. 
AND SLEEPING. 



209 



THUB8DAY 


FBIDAT 


SATTJBDAT 


SUNDAY 


8 

6.30 
soundly 


8 

7 

soundly 


9 

7.30 

soundly 


9 

9 

soundly 


1 slice 


vegetable 
2 slices 


2 slices 


1 slice 


yes 

mashed pota- 
toes, corn, 
beets 


yes 

fish 

potatoes, 

stewed 

tomatoes, 

rice 


yes 
steak 
mashed pota- 
toes, corn, 
beets 


yes 
roast beef 
roast pota- 
toes, string 
beans, salad 


huckleberries 




corn starch 


ice cream and 
cake 


1 glass 
3 slices 


1 glass 
3 slices 


1 glass 

2 slices 


2 glasses 
3 slices 


yes 
apple sauce 


yes 
huckleberries 


yes 
2 pears 


yes 
1 banana 


1 egg 
oat meal 


oat meal 


friz, beef, fried 
potatoes 


cereal 




once 


twice 


once 



210 



Wilbur B. 

Filled out by mother 



BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

III. 



HOME EATING 



Went to bed at 

Got up at 

Slept (weU; badly) , 



Ate for supper: 
What? How much? 

Soup 

Bread 

Butter 

Meat 



Vegetables . 



Dessert. 



Ate for breakfast: 
What? How much? 
Milk 



Bread . 
Rolls.. 



Butter . 
Fruit. . 



Eggs. 
Meat. 



Cereal. 



Bowels moved: 
How many times? 



MONDAY 

8.30 

7 
well but 

restless 



3 pieces 

yes 
roast veal, 
generous 
portion 

potatoes, 
beans, 
beets, 
salad 
tapioca 



postum (one 

cup) 
4 pieces and 

jeUy 



bananas 



grapenuts 



once during 
day 



8 
7 
well, moved 
occasion- 
ally 

2 pieces 
lamb stew 



potatoes, 
corn 



blackberry 
pudding 



postiun 
3 pieces 



yes 

apple sauce 

scrambled 



once during 
day 



WEDNESDAY 

9 

7 
pretty rest- 
less 



2 pieces 

yes 
beef steak 



potatoes, 
tomatoes 



blackberry 
pudding 



postum 
3 pieces 



yes and 

jelly 
blackberry 

mush 



jKJSt toasties 



twice during 
day 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 

July 24-31. 



211 



AND SLEEPING. 



THURSDAY 


FRIDAY 


SATURDAY 


SUNDAY 


8 
7 

well 


8.30 

7 
restless 


9 

7.30 
well 


9.30 

8 

well; only 

moved a 

few times 


2 pieces 


4 pieces 


4 pieces 


1 piece 


pot roast beef 

potatoes, corn, 
tomatoes 


fish 
potatoes, peas 


veal cutlet 

potatoes, beets, 
macaroni and 
cheese 


pot pie; meat 
and vege- 
tables all 
together 


glass milk 


custard 
pudding 


junket 


custard 
pudding 


postum 


postum 


postum 


postum 


4 pieces 


2 pieces 


3 pieces 


2 pieces 




one bun 




1 roll, 1 piece 
cinnamon 
cake 


yes 


yes 


yes 


yes 


apple sauce 


apple sauce 


bananas 


cantaloupe 


bacon and eggs 


post toasties 


dried beef 
creamed 


beef steak 
and pota- 
toes 


twice during 
day 


twice during 
day 


once during 
day 


once during 
day 



212 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Samuel H. IV. July 24-31. 

FiUed out by Miss Leeds. HOME EATING AND SLEEPING 



Went to bed at 

Got up at 

Slept (weU; badly) . 

Ate for supper: 
What? How much? 

Soup 

Bread 

Butter 

Meat 

Vegetables. . . 
Dessert 

Milk 



Ate for breakfast: 
What? How much? 

Milk 

Bread 

RoUs 

Butter 

Fruit 

Eggs 

Meat 

Bowels moved: 
How many times? . . 



MONDAY 

9 p. m. 
7 a. m. 
all right 



2 slices 
yes 



ice cream, 2 
cents 
1 pint 



not very 
much 

hot milk 
and water 
4 slices 

yes 

banana 

soft boiled 



yes 
regular — 
salts at 
bed time 



TUESDAY 

9 p. m. 
7 a. m, 
all right 



4 sUces 
yes 



1 pint 



hot milk 

4 shces 

yes 



herring and 
tomatoes 



yes 



WEDNESDAY 

8 p. m. 
7 a. m. 
all right 



No supper; 
could not 
find 
mother 



hot milk 

4 slices 

yes 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 213 

control the home food in some measure. First of all, 
at the mothers' meeting and also in personal inter- 
views the mothers were urged not to give the children 
tea and coffee, but milk, and not to allow the children 
to eat between meals. In addition, records were kept 
of the home meals of each child during four weeks out 
of six. These were not accurate, but they served as 
indications of the home standard. On the same card 
was kept an account of the bed time and rising hour, 
of how the child slept each night, and of the bowel 
movements. Four typical original cards are appended; 
the first two represent the food in the homes of the two 
special caretakers. Susan was very seriously under- 
nourished when she entered the special class ten days 
later than the other children. She was 4.1 kilos under 
weight for her age and height. In five weeks she 
gained 3.1 kilos, making her only 1 kilo below nor- 
mal. When she first went to live at the caretaker's 
it was hard to get her to eat. The card appended shows 
the way she was eating by the fourth week. She had 
slept restlessly at the beginning, but after the first 
week slept well. 

George, another seriously undernourished child, had 

about the same experience, but did not gain so much. 

Wilbur, a boy slightly under normal in height, but 

normal in weight for his height and age, gained 3.6 kilos. 

His card was made out by his mother, who is intelligent 



214 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

and reliable. It represents the diet in an average home 
of German-American people in good circumstances, 
who believe in hearty meals. 

Samuel's is the fourth card, made out by a social 
worker from the boy's own account. This is incom- 
plete and probably not accurate, but it gives a very 
good idea of the kind of meals that a typical boy of 
the city streets gets. 

Note the two-cent ice cream, the herring and toma- 
toes, and the entry "no supper; could not find mother." 
This boy commonly ate his supper on the street, getting 
corn, watermelon, ice cream, pickles and fish from 
push carts. 

The Daily School Lunch. 

In planning a dietary for children the ideal method 
would be to study each individual child and find out 
exactly its rate of growth and the amount of cell- 
building food necessary for this, then determine how 
much heat and energy is needed by the child in order 
that it may grow properly, work and play. That 
the requirements for different individuals vary in all 
these respects it is not necessary to point out. However, 
the ideal plan being obviously impracticable, we did 
the next best thing. 

In practice we must resort to averages. The average 
age of this class was ten years and average weight 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 215 

about sixty pounds, or 28 kilos. Studies in growth 
and development during recent years have shown 
that during the school period, that is, from seven to 
fourteen, the rate of a child's growth and his bodily 
activity do not change very much. A dietary suited, 
therefore, to the needs of a ten-year-old child will 
not only be suitable for those three or four years 
younger, but, if amply planned, will be suited to the 
requirements of the succeeding years up to puberty. 
A recent study of the work of scientists in different 
countries on children's dietaries* has shown that 
the daily ration of a child ten years old, weighing 
sixty pounds, should in round numbers amount to be- 
tween 300 and 350 grams of available food composed as 
follows: proteids 60 grams, carbohydrates 250, and 
fats 45; thus yielding a total of about 1600 calories 
of fuel or heat value. 

From what we knew of the home lives of the children, 
it was probable that only about one-half the number 
were receiving enough of the right sort of food at home, 
while the other half were seriously undernourished. 
It was, therefore, deemed essential to make the one 
meal at school relatively larger than would otherwise 
have been necessary for one meal out of three. We 
decided to try to make the meal average about 800 



* Bryant, Louise S. Recent Experimental Work on Children's Food Needs. 
Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, June, 1911, N. Y. 



216 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

calories of fuel units and to give at least one-half 
the amount of proteid and something more than one- 
half the amount of fat needed during the day. 

Menus. 

In planning the menus to fulfill this dietary we ap- 
portioned to each child at least two slices of bread 
and butter, one glass of milk and a plate of ice cream. 
These were the constant items. Variety, which is 
nearly as important as absolute food values, was 
gained by providing seven or eight different meat or 
substantial vegetable dishes. We had in all ten differ- 
ent menus, so that no menu had to be repeated more 
than three times in the twenty-nine days. As a matter 
of fact, some of the menus proved to be so heavy for 
summer that they were not served again : for example, 
scrambled eggs and bacon, and hamburg steak with 
rice. Again, other menus proved so ideal for summer 
weather, for example, lettuce and jam sandwiches, 
or shredded wheat with milk and apple sauce, that 
they were repeated several times. All the children 
liked macaroni and cheese so well that it was also 
repeated a number of times. The daily menus were 
as follows: — 

July 5 — -Beef stew, bread and butter, milk and ice 

cream. 
July 6. — Meat pie, bread and butter, milk and ice cream. 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 217 

July 7. — Creamed fish, bread and butter, milk and 

ice cream. 
July 10. — Scrambled eggs, two slices of bacon, bread 

and butter, milk and ice cream. 
July 11. — Macaroni and cheese, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 
July 12. — Roast beef sandwich, milk and vanilla ice 

cream. 
July 13. — Creamed beef, baked potato, bread and 

butter, milk and ice cream. 
July 14. — Lettuce sandwich, bread and butter, milk 

and ice cream. 
July 17. — Jam sandwich, boiled rice, milk and ice 

cream. 
July 18. — Shredded wheat with milk and sugar, apple 

sauce, milk and ice cream. 
July 19. — Macaroni and cheese, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 
July 20. — Bread and butter, milk (extra bread) and 

ice cream. 
July 21. — Lettuce sandwich, bread and butter, milk 

and ice cream. 
July 24. — Jam sandwich, rice, milk and ice cream. 
July 25. — Shredded wheat, prunes, bread and butter 

and ice cream. 
July 26. — Bread and milk with extra bread and 

butter, and ice cream. 



218 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

July 27. — Creamed beef, bread and butter, milk and 

ice cream. 
July 28. — Lettuce sandwich, milk and ice cream. 
July 3L — Jam sandwich, rice, milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 1. — Bread and butter, milk with extra bread 

and ice cream. 
Aug. 2. — Hamburg steak, rice, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 3. — Macaroni and cheese, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 4. — Lettuce sandwich, bread and butter, milk 

and ice cream. 
Aug. 7. — Jam sandwich, rice, milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 8. — Bread and butter, extra bread and milk, 

and ice cream. 
Aug. 9. — Macaroni and cheese, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 10. — Hamburg steak, rice, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 11. — Lettuce sandwich, bread and butter, milk 

and ice cream. 
Aug. 14. — Roast beef sandwich, milk and ice cream. 
Aug. 15. — Macaroni and cheese, bread and butter, 

milk and ice cream. 

In order to guard against the children bujdng candy 
after school it was necessary to make the lunch espec- 
ially attractive, and there seemed no better way to 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 219 

accomplish this than to furnish ice cream each day. 
This also served the purpose of keeping up the 
fat and proteid values, which could not have been 
done if we had given fruit, pastry, or pudding for 
dessert. 

Service. 

The bread and butter and the main dish were served 
from a nearby restaurant. From our personal knowl- 
edge of the manager of this restaurant we were assured 
that the quality of the food was the best that could 
be had for the money. The bread and butter and main 
dish cost actually between six and seven cents and three 
or four cents per portion was charged for the service 
involved. The milk and ice cream were secured direct 
from dealers. The milk was pasteurized and cost ten 
cents a quart. Four quarts of ice cream of a good 
grade were served daily and it was possible to give 
large portions. 

Food Values and the Average Intake per 
Child per Day. 

The food values of the ten specimen lunches were 
ascertained as follows : 

First, the recipes of the main dishes were secured 
from the manager of the restaurant. These had been 
formulated at the time of ordering the lunches, but we 



220 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

got the exact weights and measures at the time of 
the first serving of each menu. The exact amount of 
bread was weighed and Ukewise the butter. The recipe 
for the ice cream we were able to secure through the 
courtesy of Mr. Crane. Considerable interest is attached 
to this recipe because of the campaign for pure ice 
cream which has been carried on for several years past. 
In 1909 the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act 
(Act No. 38) regulating the ingredients of ice cream 
sold in the state. Most of the sections referred to the 
prohibition of coloring matter, gelatine, eggs in excess, 
and false labels. One of the most essential stipulations 
for our purpose, however, was the section regulating 
the amount of butter fat to be used. The law reads 
that no ice cream shall be sold within the state con- 
taining less than 8 per cent butter fat except where 
fruit and nuts are used for flavoring and then it shall 
not contain less than 6 per cent of butter fat. In the 
recipe given to us by Mr. Crane, which was in terms of 
1280 quarts, the actual butter fat was over twice that 
required by law. 

The food values of each menu were determined in 
detail, each ingredient being analyzed and its quota 
of proteid, fat, carbohydrate, potential energy and 
calories determined. The total for each day was 
estimated on the basis of nineteen portions, the number 
of children eating. The food value per portion was 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. m 

determined by dividing the total by nineteen. Ten 
menus were used. 

The first three days the lunches served were not 
counted, as during that time we were unable to secure 
the recipes. Twenty-seven days, therefore, were taken 
into consideration. 

The total food values of each menu, divided accord- 
ing to the different principles, were multiplied by 
the number of days the menu had been served. The 
grand total was divided by twenty-seven, giving the 
average total food value for each day and this was 
divided by nineteen in order to get the average value 
per portion. A summary table showing the total food 
values per portion of the different menus, follows: 

. , Proteid Fat Carbohydrate . 

Materials ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ (g^^^^j Calories 

1. Bread and milk, 

double portion, 

icecream 31.16 37.00 117.04 769.00 

2. Bread, roast beef, 

milk, ice cream.. 32.4 45.38 73.12 774.00 

3. Jam sandwich, rice, 

milk, icecream.. 26.38 36.95 149.29 885.00 

4. Hamburg steak, 

rice, bread and 
butter, milk, ice 
cream 35.16 46.13 118.74 951.00 

5. Macaroni and 

cheese, bread 
and butter, 
milk, ice cream.. 30.51 65.05 117.31 1019.00 



^22 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

. , Proteid Fat Carbohydrate _, , . 

Materials (g^^^^) ^^^^^^ (g^^^^ ^ Calories 

6. Shredded wheat 

with sugar and 
milk, bread 
and butter, 
prunes and ice 
cream 20.85 37.32 147.26 904.00 

7. Lettuce sandwich, 

with dressing, 
bread and but- 
ter, milk and 
icecream 23.17 37.60 105.47 745.00 

8. Scrambled eggs 

and bacon, 
bread and but- 
ter, milk and ice 
cream 31.79 72.72 74.08 866.26 

9. Creamed beef, 

bread and but- 
ter, milk and ice 

cream 33.64 50.67 78.48 798.00 

10. Creamed beef, 
baked potato, 
bread and but- 
ter, milk and ice 
cream 36.33 50.76 100.51 897.00 

Total average per portion: proteid 28; fat 45; carbohydrate 
115; calories 881. 

It will be noted that the fat is very high, that the 
average per portion is equal to the total standard daily 
portion. The fat is mostly derived from milk and 
butter, which is the most wholesome form for children. 
The children whose home diet was most lacking in fat 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 22^ 

were watched carefully and it was seen that they 
got more butter than the others. Several learned to 
eat butter for the first time. Again, the values given 
above took no account of waste. They are based on the 
assumption that all of the food served was eaten every 
day which of course was not strictly true, a fair 
amount being lost in changing from platter to plate. 

Results. 

The good results of the feeding, exercise and rest 
were apparent to all. In several cases, children who 
had been fussy about their food, erratic in their appe- 
tites, and restless at night, began to improve immed- 
iately, and the final week's reports were uniformly 
good. There was no doubt the children themselves 
were interested in the lunches at school. What they 
had to eat was one of the main topics of conversation 
at home and was seconded only by their interest in 
their house building and basket weaving. A more 
exact estimate of the physical gains may be had from 
the measm-ements taken at the beginning and at the 
close of the class work. 

Nutrition Measurements. 

Before the class work started, and at the end of the 
six weeks, the nutrition of every child was measured as 
follows: 



BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Comparative Measurements Taken Before and After 



Name 


Age 


Height in Cm. 


Weight in Kilos. 


















CO 


"3 

a 


c» 


CO 


"3 

a 


e* 






>> 


t: 


Ml 


>> 


t 


u 






3 


o 


P 
< 


■3 

>-> 


z 


s 

< 


1. Abraham L. . 


8 


115 


121 


119 


21 


24.1 


21 


2. George S 


8 


132 


121 


132 


21 


26.8 


22.9 


3. Giovanni A. . 


9 


126 


126 


126 


25.9 


25 


25.1 


4. RusseUF.... 


9 


124 


126 


124 


22 


25 


22.2 


5. Ernest H. . . . 


9 


135 


126 


135 


29.4 


28.17 


29.8 


6. Samuel H... 


9 


126 


126 


126 


27.3 


25 


27.8 


7. Wilbur B.... 


10 


129 


131 


129 


26 


26.27 


29.6 


8. Henry B.... 


10 


129 


131 


129 


25.4 


27.27 


25.8 


9. Richmond B. 


10 


135 


131 


135 


30 


29.54 


29.1 


10. Oswald Z.... 


11 


118 


135 


118 


23 


27.7 


21.3 


11. Morgan C. . . 


11 


137 


135 


137 


29 


30.9 


29.9 


12. Roberts.... 


11 


140 


135 


140 


31.8 


30.9 


32 


Boys' Average. . 


10- 


128.82 


128.67 


129.1 


24.3 


25.6 


26.4 


13. Clara S 


8 


120 


120 


122 


23.7 


22.27 


24.3 


14. Susan C 


9 


124 


127 


125 


21.3 


25.45 


24.4 


15. Agnes D . . . . 


10 


128 


131 


128 


30.8 


25.9 


32 


16. JuUaC 


11 


135 


135 


135 


30.8 


27.72 


31.5 


17. Florae 


13 


157 


148 


157 


42.7 


47.27 


42.3 


18. Gertrude B. . 


13 


139 


148 


141 


36.7 


33.18 


38.4 


Girls' Average . . 


11— 


133.83 


134.67 


134.67 


31. 


35.3 


32.2 


General Average . 


10— 


130.5 


130.66 


130.78 


27.7 


29.9 


28.3 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 225 

Six Weeks' Feeding, Showing Relation to Stand abd. 

























Chest Expansion 






Grip 




Per cent. 


Upper 


Lower 


TO 




IM 










fN 








IN 


CO 


S 
o 




TO 


a 

o 




>> 


o 


M 


TO 




>) 


3 


_>. 


3 


h^3 

1 i-s 


i^ 


"3 


? 


1-3 


iz; 


< 


l-» 


;? 


< 


tf 


'Z 


tf 


i-s 


< 


4 


5 


6 


6 


5 


7 


14-12 


9-8 


14-14 


40 


95 


5 


^ 


8 


5 


e 


4 


13-14 


10-9 


6-7 


65 


100 


1 


(5 


3 


1 


e 


1 


15-13 


lS-12 


17-17 


70 


95 


2 


6 


2 


2 


6 


2 


10-8 


13-12 


6-5 


65 


80 


6 


6 


8 


5 


6 


7 


20-18 


13-12 


17-12 


70 


80 


4 


6 


5 


3 


6 


6 


20-17 


13-12 


15-19 


60 


95 


2 


7 


3 


2 


7 


4 


15-14 


15-14 


16-17 


65 


95 


4 


7 


3 


4 


7 


3 


11-10 


15-14 


12-10 


55 


95 


6 


7 


6 


6 


7 


6 


10-7 


15-14 


14-11 


95 


65 


4 


7 


5 


4 


7 


2 


10-8 


18-16 


8-10 


90 


100 


5 


7 


6 


4 


7 


6 


18-17 


18-16 


19-15 


80 


95 


5 


7 


6 


5 


7 


6 


20-19 


18-16 


22-22 


70 


100 


4 


6.4 


5 


3.8 


6.4 


4.5 


15-13 


14-13 


14-13 


69 


91 


2 


6 


3 


4 


5 


3 


10-8 


9-8 


11-13 


70 


100 


1 


5 


4 


1 


5 


4 


2-3 


10-9 


13-8 


40 


85 


4 


6 


6 


5 


6 


6 


17-15 


13-12 


16-15 


65 


100 


2 


7 


6 


2 


6 


5 


16-14 


14-14 


19-16 


70 


95 


3.5 


7 


6 


4 


7 


4 


18-15 


18-17 


15-18 


90 


95 


3 


7 


5 


4 


7 


3 


20-17 


18-17 


17-16 


70 


100 


2.6 


6.1 


5 


3.3 


6 


4.2 


7-6 


7-6 


8-7 


67 


96 


3.5 


6.S 


5 


3.7 


6.S 


4.4 


14-13 


14-18 


14-14 


68 


93 



226 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

First, the height and weight were taken without 
clothes. This gave only the most general features 
of their growth, and did not indicate vitality, which 
was then determined by measuring the upper and lower 
chest expansion and the grip of the right and left 
hand. The surest single indication of nutrition being 
the state of the blood, a haemoglobin test was made 
in each case. This part of the work was done by 
Dr. Lippert, a medical practitioner in Philadelphia 
and one of the Clime's assistants. At the same time 
that the children were being weighed and measured, 
Dr. Lippert made a general estimate of their nutrition 
by observing their general appearance, the tonicity 
of the skin, the superficial circulation and the muscula- 
ture. Dr. Lippert's report is given below in full. 

The accompanying table shows all of the data 
secured in this experiment. It will be noted that the 
arrangement is as follows : First, the boys and girls are 
grouped separately and run according to age in each 
case. In each case the original and final measurement 
is compared with the normal. 

Normal Standards. 

The normal standards were secured in the following 
way: The normal height was taken from Hastings* 

♦ Hastings, William W., Manual of Physical Measurements for Boys and 
Girls, Springfield, Mass., 1902. 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 227 

and represents the numerical average standard for 
each age and sex. The normal weight was determined 
by a slightly different plan. The height on the first 
day was taken and the normal weight was ascertained 
by reference to Wood's* tables. His tables, formu- 
lated after measuring several thousand cases during 
a period of ten years, differ from the usual height 
and weight tables in that they give for each age a 
possible range in height and weight, and indicate 
not merely a single height and weight standard, but 
the ratio of weight to height. For example: a boy 
of nine years may be anywhere from 119 to 137 centi- 
meters in height and still not depart from the normal. 
Correspondingly he may range from 23 to nearly 30 
kilos in weight, but the weight must correspond with 
the height, that is, for every centimeter of height he 
should have a certain number of grams in weight. 
It will be readily seen that in estimating normal 
standards in a heterogeneous group, such as would 
be found in any American community, this kind of 
table is far more accurate than the usual form. For a 
specific example in the table, take the fifth boy, aged 
nine, who was 9 centimeters taller than the normal 
height given by Hastings for nine-year-old boys. On 
the other hand, according to Wood's table, the normal 



* Wood, Thomas Dennison, Ninth Year Book of the Nat. Soc. for Study of 
Educ, pp. 34, 35. 



228 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

weight for a boy nine years old whose height is 135 
centimeters, is 28.17 kilos, and his weight was 29.4 
kilos, thus being slightly above normal for his height 
and age. In the case of the tenth boy, aged eleven 
years, height 118 centimeters, a slightly different 
method had to be followed. According to Hastings 
he was 17 centimeters under normal in height. Accord- 
ing to Wood, the very lowest possible height for a 
"normal" boy of eleven, is 129.4 centimeters. He 
did not come up to that height and there was there- 
fore no way of estimating his normal weight accord- 
ing to his height and age. One hundred and eighteen 
centimeters, according to Wood's tables, is the lowest 
height Hmit for an eight-year-old boy. In this case, 
therefore, we took for the standard of comparison 
the lowest possible weight for an eleven-year-old 
boy as given by Wood irrespective of height, and 
according to this the boy was 4.7 kilos subnormal in 
weight. 

It will be noted that in the height and weight meas- 
urements the class as a whole did not depart signally 
from the normal. The boys' average weight, starting 
1.3 kilo below normal, at the end was nearly 1 kilo 
above, a net gain of 2.1 kilos. The girls started 4 kilos 
below normal and at the end were still 3 kilos from 
normal; showing a net gain of 1.2 kilos. The total 
average gain for the class was 0.6 kilo. 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 229 

Of all the measurements taken at the beginning 
and end of the six weeks' work, the chest expansion 
figures made the worst showing, although there was 
a general average improvement of 0.7 centimeters 
for the class. Only one child, a boy, started with a 
normal chest expansion and he attained 2 centimeters 
over normal. Two other boys, starting below normal, 
gained so as to be above normal at the end, and one 
girl came up to normal. 

The grip measurements were very varied. The 
general average showed an increase of 1 kilo in the 
left hand. On the whole, the girls showed the most 
improvement. Starting at normal, .the girls made a 
general average increase over normal of 1 kilo for 
each hand. 

In general, the most striking improvement was 
shown in the haemoglobin tests, where the class average 
rose from 68 to 92 plus. The girls' average changed 
from 67 to 96. The boys' average changed from 69 to 
91. 

The Hemoglobin Tests.* 

The haemoglobin value in any individual instance 
is determined by the quantitative method, in which 
the color of a solution of blood of unknown valuation 
is compared with the color of a known valuation. 



* Reported by Frieda E. Lippert, M. D. 



230 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

For this test divers forms of apparatus are used. 
Of them all that of von Fleischl is the most accurate 
and was the instrument used in all of the analytical 
tests with the pupils of our special class. In this 
instrument, the color of the blood diluted in definite 
proportions with distilled water in one compartment 
of a tiny well, was compared with that of distilled 
water in an adjacent compartment, beneath which, 
by means of a thumb screw, a wedge of red glass 
(Cassius' Gold-purpur) is moved till the tints of the 
two chambers correspond exactly. The frame holding 
the wedge bears a graduated scale showing the haemo- 
globin value in each individual. Normally, the blood 
contains a little less than 14 per cent haemoglobin. 
The number 100 on von Fleischl's scale corresponds 
to 13.44 per cent. 

A. L., Case 63. Aet. 7. 

1. Stoop shouldered, musculature poor, undernour- 

ished. Haemoglobin value 40. 

2. This child has made gains in height, in muscular 

tonicity and in chest expansion. Haemoglobin 
value 95; an increase of 7.39 per cent in actual 
value. 

G. S., Case 484. Aet. 9. 

1. Thin but well nourished. Musculature good. 
Haemoglobin value 65. 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 231 

2. This child shows a slight gain in weight and an 
increase in chest expansion. Haemoglobin value 
100; an increase of 4.71 per cent in actual 
value. 

G. A., Case 441. Aet. 9. 

1. Well nourished. Hsemoglobin value 70. 

2. General appearance improved. Increase of mus- 

cular tonicity. Haemoglobin value 95; an 
increase of 3.36 per cent in actual value. 

R. F., Case 417. Aet. 9. 

1. Sallow, pale; bad posture, musculature poor. 

Haemoglobin value 65. 

2. The physical condition here is apparently sta- 

tionary. Haemoglobin value 80; an increase 
of 2.02 per cent in actual value. 

E. H., Case 402. Aet. 9. ' 

1. Stoop shouldered, lateral spinal curvature. Mus- 

culature shows lack of tone. Haemoglobin 
value 70. 

2. The physical condition here is apparently sta- 

tionary; there is a small increment in weight 
and in chest expansion. Haemoglobin value 
80; an increase of 1.35 per cent in actual value. 

S. H., Case 456. Aet. 9. 

1. Well nourished, musculature good. Hsemo- 
globin value 60. 



232 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

2. The physical condition is apparently the same. 
There is a very small increment in weight and 
chest expansion. Haemoglobin value 95; an 
increase of 4.70 per cent in actual value. 

W. B., Case 464. Aet. 10. 

1. Stoutly built, well developed, musculature good. 

Haemoglobin value 65. 

2. General appearance improved. Increase of mus- 

culature tonicity is marked. Gain of height 
and weight. Haemoglobin value 95; an increase 
of 4.03 per cent in actual value. 

R. B., Case 29. Aet. 10. 

1. Sallow, pale. Adenoid facies, protruding shoulder 

blades, whole posture bad. Haemoglobin value 
65. 

2. General appearance improved; increase of mus- 

culature tonicity; increased chest expansion. 
Haemoglobin value 95; an increase of 5.37 
per cent in actual value. 

H. B., Case 182. Aet. 10. 

1. Round shouldered, posture infantile, fairly well 

nourished. Haemoglobin value 95. 

2. This boy does not show a marked change. There 

is increase of musculature tonicity and a slight 
gain in chest expansion. Haemoglobin value 
65; a decrease of 4.03 per cent in actual value. 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 233 

O. Z., Case 382. Aet. 11. 

1. Posture bad, gait poor; general asymmetry; poorly 

nourished, poor musculature. Haemoglobin 
value 90. 

2. The physical condition of this child is apparently 

stationary. Haemoglobin value has improved 
slightly, — 100 per cent; an increase of 1.35 
per cent in actual value. 
J. C, Case 55. Aet. 11. 

1. Well nourished, good musculature. Haemoglobin 

value 80. 

2. A slight improvement in general appearance. 

A slight gain in weight and in muscular tonicity. 
An improvement in chest expansion. Haemo- 
globin value 95; an increase of 2.01 per cent 
in actual value. 
R. S., Case 267. Aet. 11. 

1. Good posture, good musculature, full chest, 

well nourished. Haemoglobin value 70. 

2. This child shows an improvement in general 

appearance. There are gains in each detail, — 
height, weight, muscular tonicity and chest 
expansion. Haemoglobin value 100; an increase 
of 4.03 per cent in actual value. 
C. S., Case 479. Aet. 8. 

1. Fairly well nourished, musculature shows lack 
of tone. Haemoglobin value 70. 



284 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

2. This child shows an improvement in general 
appearance. There is an increase in height, 
weight, and muscular tonicity. HaBmoglobin 
value 100; an increase of 4.03 per cent in 
actual value. 

S. C, Case 459. Aet. 9. 

1. Stoop shouldered, entire posture bad, lateral 

spinal curvature, poorly nourished. Haemo- 
globin value 40. 

2. An improvement in general appearance. A 

marked gain in weight, in muscular tonicity 
and an increase in chest expansion. Haemo- 
globin value 85; an increase of 6.05 per cent 
in actual value. 

F. D., Case 247. Aet. 10. 

1. Well nourished. Haemoglobin value 65. 

2. A markedly improved general appearance. A 

gain in height, weight and muscular tonicity. 
An increased chest expansion. Haemoglobin 
value 100; an increase of 4.71 per cent in actual 
value. 

M.C., Case 457. Aet. 11. 

1. Stoop shouldered; general asymmetry, well nour- 

ished. Musculature denotes lack of tone. 
Haemoglobin value 70. 

2. A markedly improved general appearance, an 

increase of height and weight; improved mus- 



NUTRITION AND GROWTH. 235 

cular tonicity; increased chest expansion. 
Haemoglobin value 95; an increase of 3.36 
per cent in actual value. 

F. C, Case 327. Aet. 12. 

1. Well nourished. Haemoglobin value 90. 

2. This child has remained apparently stationary 

in physical status. Haemoglobin value 95; 
an increase of 0.67 per cent in actual value. 

G. B., Case 74. Aet. 13. 

1. Robust, well nourished, good musculature. 

Haemoglobin value 70. 

2. General appearance improved. Haemoglobin value 

100; an increase of 4.03 per cent in actual value. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

Report from the Social Service Department, 
by louise stevens bryant. 

When a child is brought to the Psychological Clinic 
it means that he has in some way departed from the 
normal, and the Clinic is the agent of society to which 
the parent or teacher turns for help. As a rule other 
social agencies are necessary to remedy the condition, 
— whether moral, mental, or physical, — that is most 
prominently associated with the deviation. Examina- 
tion and diagnosis are not enough to indicate even to 
the exceptionally cultured parents or teachers the means 
of cure and treatment. Hospitals, operations, special 
diet, exceptional opportunities for recreation, judicious 
neglect, special methods of education, — these are all 
outside the normal experience or expectation of people 
who care for ordinary children. 

There must, therefore, be a connecting link between 
the Clinic and the means of carrying out its recom- 
mendations, and this link is formed by the Social Service 
department. The social data collected by this depart- 
ment are reported as a part of the clinical picture 
and description of each child and also in the section on 
luncheons and nutrition. In the following paragraphs 

(236) 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 237 

will be presented a brief statement of the facts collected 
during the six weeks of the school, together with what 
has been attempted and accomplished in each case 
since. Two social workers regularly in the employ 
of the Clinic devoted their whole time to working 
with the class children and others who came for a first 
examination. At the same time eight volunteer workers 
from the student body, acting under their direction, 
took part in the visiting. Of these four were taking 
the course in social work offered by the Laboratory of 
Psychology, and devoted three hours daily to visiting 
as a required part of the course. The variety of experi- 
ence represented in this class, which tended to make 
the discussions of unusual interest, is shown in the fact 
that one man was a superintendent of schools, another 
a school principal, one woman a graduate dietician, and 
the other a layman who had just become interested in 
social work. 

During the six weeks the home of each child in the 
class was either visited every week or communicated 
with by letter. Twelve children were living with their 
own families, and these homes were each visited at 
least three times, most of them four times, and some 
more often. Altogether 72 visits in connection with the 
Special Class were made to children's homes, not includ- 
ing visits to caretakers. In addition, 22 written com- 
munications were received from homes. In the cases 



238 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

of children living with the caretakers of the Clinic, 
Mrs. Bryant or Miss McCall made at least two visits 
to each of the houses, sometimes more than this. In 
addition, Dr. Lippert was visiting one of the houses at 
least once a week, and the Clinic was in daily com- 
munication with both houses by means of the girl who 
brought the children in the morning and called for them 
in the afternoon. 

Parents were encouraged to visit the class, and every 
mother who was in town did visit at least once. Two 
special meetings were arranged for them, the first one 
on the Friday of the first week, and the other on the last 
Friday. Six mothers and the housemother of one of 
Clinic homes attended the first meeting. Miss Farrell 
talked to each mother alone as they came in, and then 
all together about their children. Mrs. Bryant then 
told them about the luncheons, and what it was hoped 
the regular food, rest and exercise would do, and 
asked their co-operation at home. The mothers were 
much interested and promised readily to do all they 
could. At the second meeting eight mothers were 
present, and while the children's school accomplish- 
ments were, of course, the main interest, they talked 
eagerly of the home life and the future of their boys 
and girls. 

1 . Giovanni A . This case required an unusual amount 
of social visiting, both before and during the six weeks, 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 239 

because the family were firmly convinced that nothing 
could be done for the boy. When the social worker 
first called to take G. to the hospital for the preliminary 
work, she found him entirely unresponsive, very timid 
and cringing. He would not talk and at times when 
called for would run away and hide. In the six weeks 
from July 5th to August 15th he responded to the affec- 
tion which met him everywhere and made any little 
request with frank confidence. At first one of the 
workers in the Social Service department called for him 
and took him home each day, because from all accounts 
we confidently expected that he would never come 
or get home by himself. In a surprisingly short time 
his manner had so changed that he was told he could 
come and go alone, which he did. 

When he asked one of the social workers if he might 
bring his brother to visit the school one day and was 
told he must ask Miss Farrell, he immediately went 
to her. Again, at the closing of school he went to Dr. 
Holmes and asked if he might come back next year. 
He joked with his teachers and seemed to feel sure of 
their understanding and sympathy. 

For the past two years his school record had been of 
the worst, his teacher stating that he was hopelessly 
bad and that in her opinion it would be a waste of time 
to have him in the Special Class of the summer school, 
as he had only wit enough to be bad. In a special 



240 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

school where he had been for two years he played truant 
three or four days out of each week. Our records show 
that during the six weeks here he did not miss school 
once, though for some days he had no carfare and was 
obliged to walk from his uncle's home, a distance of 
over two miles. 

While his attendance was perhaps largely due to the 
interesting nature of the school work, this interest itself 
was greatly aided by his changed environment. His 
uncle's home, where he lived this summer, is cleaner, 
better ventilated, and far more attractively situated 
than his own home. It is a three story brick building, 
with store and living room on the first floor, and work 
room, sleeping rooms and bath room on the floors 
above. 

G.'s uncle is far kinder to the boy than his home 
people, while his wife is a cheerful, comely young 
woman of fair education. Out of school hours G.'s 
chief companion in the new neighborhood was the son 
of a neighbor who said that she would rather have 
G. as a playmate for her boy than any other child 
she knew. Not least among the forces that helped 
in G.'s improvement was this atmosphere of appro- 
bation. Whereas mother, father and teacher could say 
no good word to or of the boy, now both at home and 
at school he was met with affection and encouragement. 
He responded so freely to this that all who knew him 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 241 

wonder why it was that father, mother and teacher 
united in declaring him hopelessly bad. 

During the school period G. was taken to a nearby 
hospital for a special eye examination, as his eyes were 
bothering him. The examining physician said that 
probably nothing short of an operation could save his 
sight. G. was taken to another hospital, where the 
resident physician thought it advisable before resorting 
to an operation to try every means of remedying the 
condition by refraction. He was entered there about 
one month after the summer school closed and kept 
for over a week for the first refraction. After two 
months of experimenting with new lenses, he was re- 
examined and is to have new glasses, as his eyes have 
changed very much for the better under the treatment. 
Meantime, the boy's home and school environment 
are about what they were before he joined the special 
class. He is living at his father's house where, because 
of the mother's improved health, things are a shade 
better than they were. An unsuccessful attempt was 
made to have him placed in a regular class in another 
school. He is in the same school and in a special class, 
the only change being that he is in the "backward class" 
instead of the class for "incorrigibles". Repeated 
attempts to get reports on his present condition in 
school have been unsuccessful, so that we do not know 
how he is doing in his lessons. When he comes to 



242 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

the Clinic or is taken for his eye treatment he is the 
same friendly, affectionate little boy that he was in 
the summer. The family are now ready to let us help 
the boy in any way we can, and it is probable that he 
is being treated with far more consideration than when 
he was believed by all to be hopeless and not worth 
saving. 

2. Wilbur B. During the six weeks the home was 
visited three times and his mother called three times. 
His mother thought that he improved generally during 
the summer, and at her earnest request he was admitted 
in the fall to the speech class held weekly at the Clinic. 
His speech is improving so rapidly that the teacher 
believes his former difficulty was largely a slovenly 
habit rather than a fundamental defect. 

3. Richmond B. No special social work was neces- 
sary in the case of R. B. The home was visited several 
times during the six weeks and his mother called twice. 
She seemed delighted with the interest the boy took 
in his school work and considered that he had changed 
for the better in every way. Physically he improved 
in one respect. He had been over weight but lost 
1 kg. He is the only boy in the class who shows a loss 
in the hemoglobin test. In the fall he was brought for 
entrance in the speech class, but as his speech had 
not improved before, after one full year of work, he was 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 243 

not admitted to the class. An attempt will be made 
to have him enter a special class in the public school, 
as he seems to be decidedly in need of individual atten- 
tion. 

4. Henry B. Three visits were made to Henry's 
home by the social workers. His parents reported that 
he improved physically and slept much better. Dur- 
ing one of the visits, having ascertained that Mr. B. 
was ambitious for the boy to enter a profession of some 
sort, the social worker discouraged this idea and sug- 
gested instead that the boy be allowed to learn the 
use of tools and to acquire a manual trade. The 
mother, who seemed to be more awake to Henry's 
deficiency than the father, was persuaded to enter him 
in a special class in the public school in the fall. He is 
doing so well that his teacher, who happens to have 
very low grade children, wished to know why he was 
considered in need of special class work, as he formed a 
striking contrast to the children usually sent her. 

5. Gertrude B. There was no change in the social 
environment of G. B. during the six weeks. She was 
taken on three different occasions to the oculist, twice 
to the dentist, and once to a neurologist for general 
treatment. None of this, however, was new and 
while it entailed a great deal of work on the part of the 
social workers, it had no special bearing on the develop- 



244 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

ment of her case. On her return to the regular school 
in the fall, where she is in the third grade B, the teacher 
reported that she was greatly improved over last 
year, in both conduct and lessons. The special treat- 
ment of her eyes is having a good effect and the partial 
bhndness is rapidly clearing up. 

6. Susan C. Susan's original environment has 
already been described. A week after the special class 
opened she was placed with a special caretaker under 
direction of the Clinic. At once she began to show im- 
provement. When she entered the caretaker's home 
she did not know how to eat properly. Her appetite 
was erratic and for the first two days she ate almost 
nothing. She had been used to sweets and spiced 
foods and was not accustomed to simple, unseasoned 
food. As soon as she got used to this, however, she be- 
gan to improve, and after the first week she had gained 
so much that her clothes failed to meet around the 
waist. At first her sleeping was interrupted by spells 
of fright and she would call out that she saw "bogies". 
This ceased after a short time. Her teeth were seriously 
in need of care and she was taken to the dental dispen- 
sary at City Hall, where a specialist tried to save the 
three worst teeth. In the end, however, these had 
to be removed. 

The nutrition test gave a far more satisfactory 
result with this child than with any other. She grew 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 245 

1 cm. in height, which brought her within 1 cm. of 
normal. In weight she gained 6.2 kg. in five weeks, — 
over a pound a week. Her chest expansion increased 
3 cm. and was brought up within 1 cm. of normal. 
Her grip changed from 2.3 to 13.8 kg., which made 
her at the end of the time 3 kg. above normal on 
the right hand and 1 kg. below on the left. Her 
haemoglobin percentage changed from 40 to 85 per 
cent. 

Because of these striking results of physical care and 
change in social environment it may be well to describe 
in detail her daily regimen. 

She was living in the home of one of the special care- 
takers, which has already been described in the begin- 
ning of this report. The essential features are the 
airiness of the house, especially of the sleeping 
quarters, good sanitary arrangements, and the excellent 
food the children receive. She rose each morning at six. 
She was responsible for making her bed and keeping 
her room in order. She assisted in setting the table for 
breakfast, composed usually of bread and milk, and 
after breakfast she helped clear away the dishes. 
At 8.15 with the other children in the house she started 
to walk to school, a distance of a mile. From a quarter 
to nine to four in the afternoon she was in school 
under the continual supervision of the teachers. At 
luncheon she sat near a teacher, so that her eating might 



246 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

be supervised. It was seen that she had all she wanted 
and that she chewed her food as well as the wretched 
condition of her teeth permitted. At four o'clock she 
walked home. The balance of the afternoon was spent 
in play, usually in the back yard when the weather 
permitted. She was the leader among the other 
children, inventing and directing the games. At supper 
she helped set the table and clear away, and after more 
play went to bed at eight o'clock. 

This regular life was in marked contrast to her former 
existence in a very crowded, stuffy rear house. She 
had never sat down to a table before, and had no notion 
of how to eat. Her sleeping had been in a close room, 
apparently troubled by dreams of bogies, and most of 
her waking hours were spent in running about the streets 
and alleys of the neighborhood. 

Because of the rapid improvement shown in her 
condition during the summer, it was decided to have 
her placed definitely under the care of the Clinic for six 
months. Arrangements were made with the Society 
for Organizing Charity and with a private individual, 
to pay for her board and lodging at the house of the 
same caretaker with whom she lived during the summer. 
She is attending the regular public school, where she is 
in the second grade, and her spelling and arithmetic 
marks are consistently 100. She comes to the speech 
class at the Clinic, and can now make all the sounds. 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 247 

and when she speaks slowly she is perfectly intelligible. 
The Dean of the Dental School of the University has 
become personally interested in her case and is super- 
intending her orthodontic treatment. At his suggestion 
and under the direction of another physician her nu- 
trition is being stimulated by minute doses of thyroid. 
After three months we can say that her summer's 
forging ahead was neither accidental nor a merely tem- 
porary manifestation. 

7. Julia C. Julia presents no special social problem. 
Her home, which is decidedly good in every respect, was 
visited on three different occasions and Mrs. C. called 
twice. The mother and father became enthusiastic over 
the progress she was making. They consider the most 
significant advance to be the growth of responsibility. 
She had never been able to go on the street cars alone 
or to count money, but after the first week she was able 
to come to school alone, although this necessitated 
changing of cars. The fact that all the children took 
part in setting the table, serving the food and clearing 
up after lunch seemed to stimulate her interest in 
housework, and she was very proud to do work at home 
which had formerly possessed little attraction for her. 
She has also shown other signs of growing up. She is 
not so noisy and hoydenish, but at the same time 
she is beginning to complain that she is not allowed 
to go with boys, saying that she is old enough now, 



248 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

eleven years, to be given more freedom. At present 
she is back at the regular public school. 

8. Morgan C. Certain vitally important facts were 
discovered about Morgan. The home was visited 
several times and both Mr. and Mrs. C. called. During 
these visits we learned for the first time that Morgan 
had been subject to convulsions on different occasions 
and that the mother's family had been decidedly neuro- 
tic for several generations. The maternal grandmother 
had on five different occasions been practically insane, 
although she had never been sent to a hospital. He 
was taken to Dr. Ludlum for a general neurological 
examination. At the time the examination was made it 
was not known that the convulsions had been period- 
ical, nor that they had, on one occasion at least, been 
succeeded by paralysis. Dr. Ludlum, therefore, did not 
diagnose the case as epileptic. He found a condition of 
marked malnutrition and said that the boy should be 
given a Wassermann blood test, which proved to be 
negative. By the advice of Dr. Ludlum he was sent 
at the close of school to the Woman's Hospital for a 
thorough examination as to his nutrition. Three days 
of observation failed to show any new points. A 
surgeon advised the retaking of the Wassermann test 
at some future date. Meantime it was discovered that 
the convulsions had been periodic, occurring once a 
year at least, and that they were on at least one occa- 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 249 

sion followed by paralysis, which reawakened the 
suspicion of epilepsy. 

In the fall, owing to the personal interest of Miss 
Farrell, Morgan was admitted to a private special 
school in New York. Up to date he has not had any 
convulsions. He is responding satisfactorily to the 
discipline and teaching, and we are watching the experi- 
ment with the greatest interest. 

9. Flora C. This child, a very pretty and attractive 
young girl of thirteen, presents socially one of the 
most difficult problems that we meet. She is of very 
low grade mentally and yet, because of her real physical 
charm, this is not obvious. Unless she is removed from 
her present environment she is likely to bear feeble- 
minded children, and this in spite of the fact that her 
home is a good one and her mother guards her 
constantly. 

One of the social workers, being especially interested 
in Flora, visited the home on five different occasions. 
The acquaintance thus developed into a fairly intimate 
one and it was possible to give certain helpful sugges- 
tions as to Flora's care. The mother had been formerly 
anxious for her to improve academically and could 
not see the uselessness of purely mental training, 
nor the advantage of developing her ability in manual 
and household work, and when the class began she 
was skeptical of the value of basket making and wood 



250 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

work. She now appears reconciled to the fact that 
Flora, who at thirteen is doing first grade work, will 
never shine as a scholar, especially when she recognized 
that the child was more interested in her hand work 
than she had ever been in reading and writing. Flora 
is continuing in the same special class this fall and is 
reported as generally improved, showing more con- 
centration and interest than before. Owing to the 
efforts of the social workers Flora is being given special 
orthopedic exercises by her mother, acting under the 
instruction of a physician. 

When it seems advisable, a further attempt will 
be made to convince the parents that the child 
should be placed under custodial care for the rest of 
her life. 

10. Agnes D. No special social work was done 
during the six weeks in the case of Agnes, who as 
before, was in the home of one of the Clinic's care- 
takers. The housemother reported from week to week 
that Agnes was improving, especially in the matter 
of attention, and that she seemed less panic-stricken 
under observation. She also improved in ability to do 
housework. According to the wish of the people who 
are financially responsible for her, she is still at the 
same home and is in the grade 2B of a regular public 
school. The school reports, while variable, are 
favorable. 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 251 

11. Russell F. Mrs. F. brought and called for Russell 
each day, which gave us a good opportunity to get 
acquainted with her and offer help and advice. After 
repeated efforts, she seemed to be somewhat impressed 
with the fact that her boy was not like other children. 
She was assured and appeared to understand that, 
although Russell improved physically and mentally 
in some respects, this did not mean that he could 
ever be made normal; consequently, it may be pos- 
sible to persuade her to enter him in a school for the 
feebleminded. So far nothing has been done, as the 
grandparents, aunts, and uncles are determined not to 
let the child go away from them, and the mother cannot 
be relied upon to hold out against the rest of the family, 

12. Ernest H. Ernest's home was visited several 
times, but there was no need for special social work 
save in the matter of diet. The mother has strong 
leanings to vegetarianism and seem inclined to cut down 
the children's food below a reasonable standard in 
her laudable attempt to avoid overfeeding. Some of 
the boy's general debility for which he was brought to 
us may have been due to this fact. He returned to 
the public school (grade 4B) in the fall and has shown 
remarkable improvement in his work. The principal 
thinks it is largely the result of the special class experi- 
ence and the combination it offered of physical strength- 
ening and educational stimulus. 



252 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

13. Samuel H. Samuel's home was visited several 
times before certain facts about the family history 
and the child's personal history came to light. It was 
found that in spite of a devoted mother he was not 
getting enough sleep and that his feeding was very 
irregular, — also that he had been under treatment by 
a private physician who had advised cutting out meat 
from his diet. This suggested the possibility of some 
kidney trouble, and the clue thus given was followed up. 
Through the co-operation of the Clinic and the Young 
Women's Union, he was entered in a hospital for obser- 
vation and a thorough examination of his kidneys, 
heart and general nutrition. While there for two 
weeks, he was treated for some slight kidney trouble. 
He was afterward sent to the country for two weeks. 
On his return, the treatment begun for his kidneys was 
continued at a hospital nearer his home and he under- 
went a slight operation. Since this time he has shown 
a marked improvement in general health and dis- 
position, with no recurrence of his old sulky moods. 
He will be under continued observation for an indefinite 
period. 

14. Abraham L. One of the social workers, being a 
graduate dietitian and naturally most interested in 
cases of underfeeding, visited Abraham's home several 
times, and was able to effect a decided change in his 
food habits. Her main efforts were directed to elimi- 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 253 

nating tea and coffee and substituting milk and cocoa. 
Then too, she urged upon his mother the necessity 
of making him eat, even when he was not very hungry, 
— the child being actually nearly starved because of 
too little food, and this in a home where there was no 
extreme poverty. At the school lunch he was watched 
and urged to eat, and being very docile, obeyed. He 
was also "starved" for sleep, and this he partially made 
up by long unbroken naps at school. The result was 
quite remarkable. His mother reported after a few 
weeks that he ate and slept better than ever before. 
The most remarkable change was found in the blood, 
which by test showed 40 per cent haemoglobin in the 
beginning and 95 per cent at the close of the session. 
That his general vitality was greatly improved was 
shown partly by the better chest and grip measure- 
ments, but even more by the fact that he learned to 
smile and laugh, which we had never seen him do 
before. He also learned to swim and dive, — no small 
attainment in six weeks. 

In the fall Abraham was brought to the Clinic for 
re-examination. At this time he responded very 
much better than he had on his first examination. 
Formerly he had hardly responded to any questions. 
Part of this difficulty, it was discovered, was due to 
the fact that he did not understand English, as he 
responded well enough when a member of the family 



254 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

spoke to him in Yiddish. The condition seemed to be 
due, partially at least, to some psychical condition 
which has not as yet been determined. An obscure 
form of aphasia was suggested, but to determine this 
will require considerable observation. 

The boy and his brother were submitted to a blood 
test in order to find out if there was some underly- 
ing constitutional difficulty. The blood test was 
negative. 

Abraham was returned to his former school and the 
reports are so far uniformly favorable. The following 
statement was submitted by his teacher: "The im- 
provement shown by A. L. is quite marked. He 
is decidedly more awake than he was last term and his 
memory is better though not up to the normal child. 
To my mind, Abraham will learn to read, but it may 
take ten or fifteen months to do five months' work." 
It was suggested that perhaps the boy might progress 
faster in a special class for backward children, where 
the numbers would be fewer than in a crowded first 
grade, and more individual attention could be given. 
This did not prove feasible, however, because the 
nearest school having a special class was a consider- 
able distance from his home and he evidently could 
not be allowed to go to school alone. In case he does 
not make the hoped for progress he may be transferred 
to a special class at the end of three or four months. 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 255 

At this time his older brother enters the grammar 
school and can accompany Abraham to the other 
school. 

16. Robert S. One of the students in the class for 
social research, the principal of a combined school in 
a Pennsylvania town, became especially interested in 
Robert and visited the boy in his home several times, 
going in the evening to see the father. The father's 
mother was much pleased at the visit, and said it was 
the very first time that anyone outside the family had 
been sufficiently interested in Robert to call to see 
him. While Robert is a generally healthy lad, one 
habit was discovered which needed special correction. 
The mother said he spent a great deal of his time 
playing with cigarette pictures. These pictures were of 
the usual type, gaudy, and semi-obscene pictures of 
girls in tights, and so on. As Robert is only eleven 
years old, this is significant as showing precocious 
development. He would sit on the floor in the corner 
of the room brooding over his pictures, and although 
this does not seem to hurt him at present, it is not 
wholesome. He refuses, however, to give the cards 
up, and when asked to do so becomes very sullen 
and stubborn. The parents have been advised to 
give him as much manual work as possible and en- 
courage his naturally strong interest in sports. 
When Robert returned to the speech class in the fall 



256 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

he was so much improved that the examining psychol- 
ogist dismissed him from the class, and sent a message to 
the school teacher that his defect in speech was not 
fundamental and with perseverance might be entirely 
eliminated. 

17. George S. George is a striking example of the 
change that may be wrought even in a short time by a 
more favorable social environment. As soon as he was 
removed from his own home he showed improve- 
ment. In every way his new environment was a 
contrast to the old. On the physical side he was assured 
proper food in sufficient quantities and a quiet place to 
sleep, but what was more important, the new environ- 
ment was mentally wholesome. Instead of being nagged 
and scolded continually or being the center of attrac- 
tion, amusement and bullying for a large number of 
children, he was judiciously let alone. Instead of hav- 
ing outbreaks of temper several days a week, he had 
none at all during his stay. His mother reported that 
he had never obeyed, and although this came hard 
at times, he obeyed quite well and cheerfully. He 
made one or two attempts to get the kind of interest 
he was accustomed to, by running away and refusing, 
for example, to come and be photographed. He told 
Mrs. Bryant that he was simply trying to make her or 
the teachers run after him. He said he had always 
been able to get his big sister to run after him. After 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 257 

a few unsuccessful attempts he stopped this and gave 
no further trouble. Toward the end of the session 
his father requested that he be allowed to go home over 
Sunday to attend an aviation meet and go on a picnic. 
This was refused, as we felt that the excitement and 
lapse from discipline would be too much for him. 
George had learned of the invitation and had boasted 
of how he was going to carry on if he was not allowed 
to go. When the time came, however, he made no 
trouble whatever, although he was keenly disappointed. 

His caretaker reported that he gave her absolutely 
no trouble; on the contrary, he soon made himself very 
useful about the house running errands. We had been 
afraid he might exploit Oswald, who was living in the 
same house, but he showed no tendency to do this. 
On the contrary, he took very good care of this boy, 
who was considerably weaker, helped him to dress, 
walked slowly with him and held his hand at the 
crossings on the road to school. 

Physically he made almost as marked an improve- 
ment. He was 9 centimeters above normal height for 
his age and nearly 6 kilograms subnormal in weight for 
his height. In five weeks he gained 2 kilograms, his 
chest expansion increased and the haemoglobin per- 
centage rose from 65 to 100 per cent. His grip showed 
a falling off. He had been normal in the beginning, but 
the test showed a decided loss. However, at the 



258 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

time the second test was taken, he said he felt very 
tired and that he knew he was not doing well, and in 
fact, did not try very hard. 

The six weeks showed what could be done with 
George if he were placed permanently in a favorable 
environment. Of course, it did not work fundamental 
changes, and a week of his old home environment, which 
could not be avoided before getting him into the 
country, went far towards putting him back where he 
was in the beginning. However, before all the good 
effects had worn off, he was placed in the Children's 
Village at Meadowbrook, a sort of Junior Republic on 
a small scale. Here he sleeps out of doors, has all he 
needs to eat, and is under constant supervision and 
kindly discipline. In the school there he is being 
studied as a super-normal child and allowed to pro- 
gress as fast as possible without pushing. In two 
months he has made such progress that his teacher 
says he will have completed three grades by Easter, 
instead of the usual one grade. 

He has gained eleven pounds and begun to look and 
act like a different child. So far, — over four months, — 
he has given no trouble, either to his housemother or 
the teachers. His main difficulty is in playing with 
the other children. It comes hard for him when teased 
to keep his temper, but he is mastering himself very 
well and has had no serious outbreaks. 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 259 

18. Oswald Z. Oswald is interesting, because he 
is the only child in the class who did not improve 
during the six weeks. The nutrition test showed that 
he lost one kilo in weight, although he was over four 
kilos subnormal to begin with. His grip and chest 
expansions were more feeble than in the beginning. 
He gained in the single respect of the haemoglobin test; 
in the beginning it was 90 per cent and at the end 100 
per cent. The caretaker reported that he seemed to 
be more fatigued each day, and at school he was allowed 
to sleep as long as he wished. 

This general loss is very significant, because he was 
under the care of the Clinic for the whole twenty-four 
hours. He was receiving enough food, and was sleep- 
ing under wholesome conditions. He was also being 
kept very quiet out of school, but the excitement 
and strain of school work were evidently too much for 
him, and this experience proved that he was a boy who 
should not be in the special class. This was the first 
schooling he had ever received, and the first chance 
we had to see how he would react to a relatively nor- 
mal situation. He was not able to stand the excitement, 
even with the best physical care and constant special 
allowance, such as being left asleep for an hour or more 
after the others had been aroused. He began to improve 
after the school stopped and is now looking very well 
indeed. 



260 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Aside from the general low physical condition it 
must be borne in mind that this boy is retarded because 
he never learned to speak. When he first came 
to the Clinic he was unable to make any of the arti- 
ulate sounds of language. Within nine or ten months 
he learned with no formal and very little informal 
teaching, to make a great many sounds and to make 
himself partially understood by means of speech. 
For some time this boy had been a difficult case from 
the social point of view, because there was no provision 
for the training of children like him. The boy not being 
technically feebleminded could not be admitted to an 
institution for the feebleminded. On the other hand, 
not being deaf, he was not eligible for the ordinary 
institutions for the deaf. He is one of a class rela- 
tively small, but absolutely large, known as hearing 
mutes, which is receiving increasing attention by edu- 
cational authorities. The immediate outlook seemed 
pretty hopeless until, in reading over the report of the 
Pennsylvania Oral School for the Deaf, at Scranton, Pa., 
we noted that among the children admitted during the 
past year five were hearing mutes. Four of these 
had been discharged because it was found they were 
feebleminded, but one had been retained. This led 
us to hope that perhaps Oswald might be admitted 
on a similar basis, and after a lengthy correspondence 
with the head worker he was accepted on trial. After 



SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. 261 

a month they have agreed to keep him as long as neces- 
sary. He is being given the same throat and vocal 
gymnastics that the deaf children are taught, to get the 
sounds by the method of tongue placing and special 
breathing exercises, rather than by the method of imita- 
tion , which seemed to produce very slow results. Letters 
and reports are all favorable and the teachers seem 
confident of success with him. As it is the first case 
of the kind for which we have been able to secure definite 
treatment, it will be followed with much interest. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Clinical Psychology and the Professional 

Training of Teachers (and Others 

Interested in Child Welfare). 

BY LIGHTNER WITMER. 

The organization of public school classes for back- 
ward and defective children is the result of several 
important influences which have already greatly modi- 
fied and which may be expected still more to modify 
educational procedure. In the first place, these classes 
reflect the growth of a new professional spirit among 
public school administrators, — a more scientific attitude 
toward the problem of universal education, and a 
greater determination to promote individual and school 
efficiency. Ungraded and special classes are the direct 
consequence on the one hand of the enforcement of 
compulsory education, and on the other of a more 
definite conception of the real object of the public 
schools, i. e. the adequate preparation of all the 
children of our American communities for a life of social 
and economic usefulness. In great measure, however, 
the recognition of the existence and needs of these 
children has followed upon the installation of adequate 
medical inspection, first for the prevention of the spread 

(262) 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 263 

of contagious and infectious diseases and then for the 
removal of all physical defects or handicaps in the 
way of school progress. Another potent factor has 
been the growing social consciousness which the public 
schools are manifesting in common with other agencies 
who work for social betterment in general and for child 
welfare in particular. And lastly, but by no means 
of least importance, there is the stimulus which modern 
psychology during the twenty-five years of its develop- 
ment in this country has given to the recognition of 
individual needs and capabilities in order that the 
purposes of general education may be successfully 
carried forward. 

The growing movement for the training of backward 
and defective children is momentarily the point within 
the public school system at which these various 
influences are most intensely focalized. But the intro- 
duction of the special class into public school work 
has carried with it certain consequences, some of them 
unexpected, but all of them resulting in the growth of 
a new point of view. The solution of the problem of 
educating backward children has of necessity led 
school administrators and teachers far afield from the 
merely pedagogical problem of teaching the three 
R's. It has led to an examination of the causes of 
backwardness, which have been found to include late 
entrance to school, absence, foreign parentage, inade- 



264 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

quate care, insufficient food and physical defects, as 
well as congenital mental inferiority. It has brought to 
bear upon the problem minds trained in economics, 
sociology, medicine, psychology and education. It 
has shown the necessity for the co-operation of the 
schools with university departments of research and 
instruction on the one hand, and with social and 
charitable organizations on the other. The pedagogical 
treatment of the problem demands (first of all) diagnosis 
and classification, and the necessity for classification 
has shown the necessity for the study of individuals. 
Thus there is being introduced into the schools a clinical, 
i. e. an individual psychology. Two classes of public 
school authorities require to-day an intimate knowledge 
of this modern type of psychology. These are (1) 
administrative officers, including school principals, 
and (2) all teachers who have to do with special or 
ungraded classes of children, whether these be mentally 
defective, speak only a foreign language, or possess 
exceptional ability. 

The problem of the backward child is the problem 
of individual mental development, and no successful 
solution of this problem is possible unless those who 
are attempting it are animated by the spirit and 
penetrated by the facts of an individual psychology. 
Teachers for classes of exceptional children must there- 
fore be made acquainted not only with special methods 




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XL. THE RECORDING INSTRUMENT. 

THE SUBJECT PLACES HIS HAND IN THE PLETHTSMOGRAPH; BY MEANS OF AIK 
ANOTHER ROOM TRACES A PULSE CURVE AND SHOWS CHANGES IN THE VOLUME 
THE EMOTIONS IN THE SECOND YEARS LABORATORY WORK OF THE SYSTEMATIC 




XLI. THE PLETHYSMOGRAPH. 

CONDCCTION THROUGH RUBBER TUBING, THE RECORDING INSTRUMENT IN 
OF BLOOD IN THE HAND AND FOREARM. STUDENT APPARATUS USED TO STUDT 
COURSE. 




2 o 

ST " 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 265 

of education, but also with the physical and mental 
constitution of the children whom they are called upon 
to develop. They are not teachers in the ordinary 
sense: they are trainers, mental developers, and they 
must be quick to recognize the physical and mental 
nature of the organisms they would stimulate to 
higher activities. They must know not only the 
mental and physical defects of these children, but their 
mental and physical assets as well. 

The backward child is already beginning to repay 
society and the schools for the lavish expenditure of 
time and effort upon his training. The demand grows 
more insistent for the recognition of the individual 
rights and needs of every child, and before long the 
viewpoint of clinical psychology from which we regard 
the training of the backward child will be the accepted 
viewpoint from which to regard the training of all 
children. This point of view, this recognition of the 
problem of education as being primarily the mental, 
moral and physical development of an individual, is 
one which many educators have doubtless expressed 
from time to time, but it has not as yet won general 
acceptance, and if one examines common practice quite 
a contrary standard of action will often be found. 
Thus a district superintendent of one of our large cities, 
on the recommendation of a principal, brought pressure 
to bear upon a grade teacher to cease visiting the homes 



266 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

of parents and taking the children in her class on 
excursions to the park and elsewhere outside of school 
hours, the statement being that she was there to teach 
these children and not to cultivate extraneous social 
relations with them. 

Ordinary children make sufficient progress even 
when treated in the undifferentiated mass in which 
they happen to be. The grade teacher perhaps may 
have a large measure of success without concerning 
herself about the mental and physical personality of her 
children. The day by day development of a backward 
child, however, is always a critical and momentous 
issue. The teacher must know each child as an 
individual. She must consult physicians in order 
that they may assist in her work through the medical 
treatment of the physical causes of retardation. She 
must either visit the homes of her children or she 
must have a social visitor who will make such visits 
and report to her. The employment of discipline, to 
take only one example, must meet the individual's 
needs. Whether severe or lax discipline is called 
for will depend upon the kind of treatment to which 
the child is subjected at home. If the claim is made 
by teachers of special classes that they have not the 
time to visit in the homes, this simply means that they 
have not the time to do their work properly. The 
teacher, however, is not a social visitor primarily. She 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 267 

is primarily a psychologist working in a practical field, 
applying psychological principles day by day to the 
mental development of each child. Clinical psychology 
combines information gathered from many different 
scientific sources, and applies this information to 
the understanding and treatment of each child's 
individual needs. 

Like all new problems, the problem of the exceptional 
child finds those who are called upon to solve it 
insufficiently trained for the purpose. Hundreds of 
earnest teachers are now seeking to obtain the proper 
equipment and are finding those to whom they turn 
for professional training as ill equipped as them- 
selves to give real enlightenment on the necessary 
psychological and educational problems. Text-books 
of psychology are wholly inadequate. They are 
usually at least ten years out of date at the time they 
are written, and they are apt to contain more matters 
of speculative interest than of practical value. The 
departments of psychology in most of our institu- 
tions of learning have been caught unprepared to 
meet the demand of teachers for a practical psy- 
chology. 

Courses in psychology for those interested in excep- 
tional children cannot be satisfactorily planned and 
operated without much preliminary experimentation 
and trial. A teacher of backward children can acquire 



268 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

a sufficient knowledge concerning backward children 
only by coming in actual contact with them. A 
department of psychology cannot teach psychology 
to teachers of backward children without the experience 
of prolonged investigation with these children. The 
value of our summer class for backward children 
resides partly in the opportunity afforded teachers of 
backward children to observe these children in actual 
school room practice, and partly in the opportunity 
afforded the teaching faculty to investigate these chil- 
dren at first hand. The special class for backward 
children conducted by the Psychological Laboratory 
and Clinic is itself a psychological laboratory; a 
demonstration laboratory, inasmuch as types of back- 
ward children are presented to the observation of 
summer school students, and a research laboratory, 
in that the children of the class are continuously under 
scientific observation. A special class is therefore a 
necessity, both for the student and for the department 
of psychology. For many years our courses in psy- 
chology have been modified, changing somewhat in 
purpose, but very much in content so as to adapt 
them more nearly to give a practically useful 
psychology to teachers and other students of child 
welfare. 

Our summer school courses in psychology have always 
had the purpose of putting before the teachers of the 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. £69 

country the best which our department had to offer 
in the way of professional equipment. From year to 
year new courses have been added. The special class 
of 1911 differed from other special classes conducted 
by the Department of Psychology in that instruction 
in methods of teaching was added to instruction in 
clinical psychology. With the assistance of Miss 
Farrell, the class was more than a demonstration and 
experimental laboratory. It was an actual public 
school class for backward children, conducted by Miss 
Farrell and her assistants as such classes are conducted 
under her supervision in the public schools of New 
York City and as such classes may be conducted else- 
where by competent teachers who receive sufficient 
encouragement and support from the school authorities. 
Students attending the summer school, therefore, had 
the unusual opportunity to observe a well-conducted 
public school class, and through discussions with Miss 
Farrell to gain an insight into the psychological 
principles which they saw in daily operation. In 
addition, the children in the class furnished material 
for definite instruction in psychology, and the class 
itself formed part of a progressive experiment which 
the department is conducting for the purpose of 
advancing our knowledge of an applied clinical 
psychology. 

What a student will get from observing the work 



270 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

of even the most expert teachers will depend very 
largely upon what the student brings to the task 
of observation. There is a body of very practical 
knowledge concerning the mental and physical consti- 
tution of the children which the teacher must not 
fail to possess. This body of knowledge is compressed 
into a course entitled Clinical Psychology, dealing with 
the types of children who are apt to be found in special 
classes in the public schools. The life of the child out 
of school is as important as the life of the child in the 
class room. The teacher who observes and knows 
about the school life of the child will know only a 
part of what will be of service in stimulating mental 
development. There is a body of knowledge dealing 
with the out-of-school life of the child, with the child's 
father and mother, the food that he eats, the room 
in which he sleeps, his play, his life on the street, 
which is no less important to the teacher than a 
knowledge of special methods of instruction. A course 
in social psychology, developed from practical social 
work in connection with a psychological clinic or in 
connection with a special class, is of prime necessity 
to the teacher for rounding out her information. 
I consider it of no small importance that teachers 
should have the opportunity to engage in home visit- 
ing or social work, and that they should be instructed 
on the many social aspects of the educational problem. 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 271 

And here we are met by the fundamental problem 
of professional training. If the teacher is to get 
the greatest advantage from observing a well-taught 
group of backward children, or from the principles 
and facts of a clinical psychology, or from a course 
on the social aspects of school work, the teacher needs 
a thorough grounding in the principles of psychology. 
It must be a worth-while psychology covering the 
modern field of psychology not in the text-book fashion, 
but assisted by first-hand laboratory work on the 
part of the student. The prime object of a thorough- 
going course in psychology for teachers is to train 
them to become psychologists and not to fill their minds 
with technical verbiage. All this requires time, and 
I do not believe that this kind of foundation in 
psychology can be given in less than a two-year course. 
As the result of our experience at the University of 
Pennsylvania we have organized and give in connection 
with the summer school courses a two-year systematic 
course in psychology which we hope will ground the 
student in the essential facts and principles and at the 
same time teach him how to observe and think cor- 
rectly about the mental processes of others. The 
systematic course occupies three hours weekly for two 
academic years or three hours daily for two summer 
sessions, one hour each week or day respectively being 
devoted to a lecture and two hours to laboratory 
work.* 



272 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

Every student is compelled to face this dilemma 
of professional training, — either a long course in 
general psychology followed by courses in practical 
work, which is, after all, the burning interest, or else 
to attack the practical work first on an insufficient 
foundation. Two or three years, that is, attendance 
at the summer courses for two or three summers, 
would be necessary to obtain a well-rounded course 
of preparation in the kind of individual psychology 
required for teaching backward children. Teachers 
who can afford to give this amount of time must be 



* Fifteen courses in psychology were offered at the summer school of 1911, 
each occupying at least one hour a day for the six weeks of the eeasion. 
Practical Courses. 

1. Educational psychology. 

2. Clinical psychology. 

3. Abnormal psychology. 

4a. Anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and physical education. 

4b. Mental and physical defects; medical inspection of school children. 

5. Social aspects of school work. 

15. The special class — observation and discussion. 
, The Systematic Course. 

6. General psychology — first year. 

7. Genetic psychology — second year. 

8. Laboratory course A — first year. 

9. Laboratory course B — second year. 
Advanced Courses. 

10. Experimental psychology. 

11. Child psychology. 

12. Social research in clinical psychology. 

13. Tests and measurements of children. 

For a detailed description of these courses see " Courses in Psychology at the 
Summer School of the University of Pennsylvania," The Pstcholoqical 
Clinic, Vol. IV, No. 9, February 15, 1911, pp. 245-273. 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 273 

advised that this is the most satisfactory procedure. 
Teachers who feel that they have the ability to go far 
in this work should be urged to make every sacrifice 
to get the complete course. But our work has been and 
I believe ought to be so arranged that students even 
without this grounding in psychology can directly 
apply themselves to the practical problems with 
immediate profit to themselves and ultimately to their 
pupils. 

There is every reason to give serious consideration 
to the professional training of teachers in psychology. 
At the summer school of 1910 the aggregate enrollment 
in all courses offered by the Department of Psychology 
numbered 84. At the summer school of 1911 this 
number had increased to 221. Many of these students 
were teachers who were sent to us and whose expenses 
were paid by their local school boards. All of them 
were earnest students, who were devoting their entire 
time during the summer school to the courses in 
psychology. Quite a large number who had come 
intending to get what they could from a single year's 
work in the practical courses in psychology, acting 
upon our advice entered upon the introductory and 
systematic course for the purpose of acquiring a solid 
foundation in psychological principles before taking 
up their application to school room practice with back- 
ward children. Not all of them could afford to post- 



274 BACKWARD CHILDREN. 

pone the work in which they were more directly 
interested, and so they made their selection from the 
practical courses in educational psychology, clinical 
psychology, abnormal psychology, social aspects of 
school work, and the observation of the special class. 
Other students came to the courses with a different 
angle of interest, — school principals and even super- 
intendents seeking the latest information in clinical 
psychology, as well as grade teachers, school nurses, 
social workers, a few physicians and members of the 
ministry, some interested in the abnormal psychology, 
others in the social psychology, and still others 
asking only such a brief survey of modern psychology 
as was given in the course entitled educational 
psychology. 

A worth-while psychology for teachers of back- 
ward children will be a worth-while psychology for 
all who are interested in the welfare of children. 
The ungraded or special classes for backward children 
are only the beginning of a modern educational move- 
ment, the beginning indeed of a social progress move- 
ment. Already attention is being directed toward the 
exceptionally gifted child and toward other types of 
exceptional children, those who enter late, foreign 
children, children requiring special vocational train- 
ing, etc. The backward child will show us the edu- 
cational way for all children. Whatever we may think 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 275 

of the value of Montessori's work, her experiment has 
awakened widespread interest, and there is great 
significance in the fact that she began this work with 
feebleminded children and then added to her practical 
experience a thorough grounding in psychology. She 
is now able to apply to normal children the method 
she worked out psychologically on backward children. 
Teachers of exceptional children, those at least who are 
familiar with the psychological principles of individual 
training, will without doubt inspire the most brilliant 
educational advances of the near future. School 
progress will be discovered to be the best and surest 
kind of social progress. The individualization of the 
pupil going hand in hand with the socialization of the 
schools will make education at once the greatest single 
force leading to social betterment and the medium in 
which diverse social forces will best play their allotted 
parts. To fit our children for the next world, — the 
better world which they will make to replace this 
present world of our making: this surely is to find 
the gateway to race progress. 



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